They don't need any local companies to participate in this program. This company can hire engineers with an understanding of code (even better, engineering/safety principles behind the code) from the industry. Further, they can go and recruit intelligent people who graduated from trade schools but couldn't get that apprenticeship from local unions. That's all they need, as long as home owners are compensated for any screw ups.

The first line 'Partnerships with home-service companies ...' tells the whole story. No local company with decent trades people on their payroll wants to work with home-service companies, it's always the lowest bidder who wants to get that job from home-service companies. Who are these lowest bidders? Someone brand new, who couldn't get enough clients.

If residential HVAC has more monitoring controls, it is easy to diagnose 99% of the time. What needs to be monitored: supply air temp, return air temp, suction pressure, suction temp, liquid pressure, liquid temp, compressor inrush amps, compressor amp draw, blower motor cfm, blower motor amp draw, further info from ECM and VFD modules if ECM blower motor and VFD compressor are used, etc. Many modern HVACs have some kind of error codes to show what is going on; however, every manufacturer wants his own set of codes, and their special communication prototol, their special thermostat, ...

One can extend similar controls to plumbing and electrical too. That requires a total revamp of how residential electrical/plumbing/hvac is done. This is similar to any field where robots have taken over: the field itself changes in order to accommodate robots.

Electrocution = fatal injury (death). Shock = non-fatal injury.

At least in the developed world, electrocutions (deaths) are less than what we see in the third world.

70% of all workplace electrical fatalities are in non-electrical trades: https://www.esfi.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/ESFI-Workpla...

For someone like you, you can learn common codes in two weeks. However, this profession is gated by 2000 to 8000 hrs of apprenticeship.

Controls, PLC programming for industrial automation, etc is where you can shine. However, I don't like work with high voltage circuits, even the latter are controlled by low voltage control circuits.

Even in home appliances (washer, dryer, oven, dishwasher, heatpumps, dish washer, etc), we see a lot of control circuits (PCB boards, step down transformers, VFD etc).

I am not blaming the HVAC technicians. It is the nature of trades: small business owners don't want to train up their technicians. So, they always look for fresh blood. Also, this field is seasonal: summers and winters. In summers, cooling problems; in winters, it is heating problems (furnaces, etc).

HVAC needs three different skills: controls (relays, transducers, contactors), electrical, refrigeration circuit, air flow (duct work, proper cfm settings), etc. In a way, this whole area is covered in multiple semesters of any mechanical engineering program (heat transfer, control systems, electricity).

When one hears 2-6%, it is just the floor.