They say age is nothing but a number, so here are three: Every 24 hours another 10,000 Americans turn 65. Initially for many — and eventually for all — their lifestyles will change in ways that create major opportunities for electrical contractors. Some of those changes are obvious, such as adding task lighting and moving outlets and switches to places where they’re easier to reach. Others dovetail with seemingly unrelated trends, such as the quest for affordable housing and the rise of electrical vehicles (EVs).
In retirement, people gravitate toward two types of lifestyles: senior living communities (ranging from independent living to skilled nursing) and “aging in place,” where they remodel their existing home or build a new one that meets their requirements. Approximately 77% of people 50 and older want to stay in their home, and 33% say that would require modifications, according to the American Association of Retired Persons’ (AARP) latest Home and Community Preferences survey.
“By 2034, for the first time in U.S. history, we're going to have more people over the age of 65 than under 18,” says Rodney Harrell, AARP vice president for family, home, and community. “We've got a population that's shifting demographically and changing in many ways. But we've got a lot of homes and neighborhoods that don't meet [their] needs.”
Caregivers such as adult children also influence where and how seniors live. The AARP survey found that nearly half of them are concerned about whether their loved ones can continue living independently in their home.
Here’s where the seemingly unrelated topic of affordable housing comes into play. To expand housing stock, many cities are relaxing their single-family zoning to allow accessory dwelling units (ADUs). According to the AARP survey, 64% of adults would live in an ADU so they can be close to a loved one, while 62% would consider building an ADU on their property for a loved one who needed care.
Voice control offers convenience — and complexity
Many of those ADUs will include the smart home technologies that electrical contractors increasingly provide, such as doorbell cameras and speech-controlled lighting.
“It's pretty unlimited as far as what can be controlled,” says Tony Huff, director of sales and operations at Kansas City-based Teague iCtrl, a division of Teague Electric. “If there's a way to control it, more than likely Control4 can control it, and we can integrate it into whatever system. So, if they want motorized blinds that adjust at certain times throughout the day, we can do that.”
Using a central control system also benefits electrical contractors who support smart home products rather than just installing them. For example, it can minimize truck rolls by enabling remote troubleshooting. That also can be attractive to adult children who don’t live nearby because they don’t have to worry that a loved one will be sitting in the dark or cold.
“If we see an issue, and we need to reboot something, a lot of times we can do that remotely if they've got a Control4 system,” Huff says. “The other thing is a lot of times, if they're having an issue, they can reboot their router or device remotely on their app, which is fantastic. They don't have to go down to the basement, go through a bunch of wiring, try to go to the back of the rack to figure out where the on off switch is, or unplug this cable for so many seconds. It makes it really easy.”
Some types of devices incur more support than others. For example, speech control sounds like it would eliminate problems, such as getting lost in menus or hitting the wrong button. But it can also create unexpected complexity.
“I did a few troubleshooting calls where elderly customers claimed their smart speaker/smart lighting was not working,” says Rich Shumway, who’s in charge of smart home technologies for Hyattsville, Md.-based Wilcox Electric. “The issues were always either the smart speaker was not always registering their voice, or the customer did not give a specific enough command. Specifically, a set of lights were called ‘dining room lights,’ but the customer told Alexa to turn on ‘dining lights.’”
Senior living communities also add tech
Senior living communities also are increasingly adding smart home technologies. For example, in assisted living, smart speakers (coupled with control systems) enable residents to say: “Turn the temperature up to 70,” or “Lower the window shades.” It also reduces the workload for staff who otherwise would handle those requests all day long.
“We are currently designing smart home technologies into our future developments,” says Tony Yi, chief technology and innovation officer at Surprise, Ariz.-based Sun Health Communities. “Regarding reduced mobility, for convenience, imagine using voice control to change the temperature without having to get off the recliner. Submitting a ticket for facilities to repair your stove can be had through voice commands. When residents fall, they can ask for help through voice commands that can alert and notify appropriate resources.”
There’s also a host of emerging technologies and use cases.
“Something as simple as installing a mirror in the bathroom now requires electrical and network planning,” Yi says. “Smart mirrors can provide a general summary of reminders or information about your health or weather. Imagine brushing your teeth and seeing this information displayed.”
These require power, notes Yi, and will also require network (wired or wireless) capabilities. “I believe that the role of electrical contractors that have traditionally focused more on core infrastructure and needs will, or should have, a hand in adding value and influence to the delivery, use, and design of power for future communities,” he says.
In senior living communities, electrical contractors traditionally work with the department in charge of building facilities. The trend toward smart buildings means they’re likely to interact with IT, too.
“For now, IT/technology would ‘own’ the initial accountabilities in collaboration with operational groups at a high level on all things that deal with technology, innovation, and data, due to the nature of systems and platforms that support and facilitate them,” Yi says. “Upon maturity and more widespread adoption, or operationalizing things, the responsibilities may be shared, distributed, or absorbed more to operations and/or facilities.”
He uses the example of installing an Alexa hub to tie various modalities (sensors, thermometers, and TV) together. “We would like to centralize, manage, and process data to illustrate the experience and identify opportunities,” he says. “Facilities would not understand the integration and interoperability of information systems to make that happen.”
In some senior living communities, electrical contractors are responsible only for installing the conduits and chases rather than the cabling and devices, too. This role might sound straightforward, but it can quickly get complex if the building has a wide variety of resident room types. That was the case at a new assisted living facility in Great Falls, Va., where Ryan Electric recently wrapped up work.
“Each floor has certain a number of residence rooms,” says Stan Pietrzyk, Ryan Electric owner. “Some are called type A. Some are called type B. It goes all the way to the letter U. That's how many different types they have. The differences are receptacles in different locations, some have call buttons, and that sort of thing.”
Resident safety obviously is a major concern, especially for multi-story senior living communities. That’s why Ryan Electric got a change-order to add a distributed antenna system to the Great Falls project.
“There are antennas up on the roof,” Pietrzyk says. “If there's some issue that happens inside the building, the signals are immediately transmitted via this antenna system to the fire department. There's one on each level that goes into the communication room and ties into the fire alarm control panel.”
Surging demand for EV charging infrastructure
Golf carts no longer are the only type of battery-powered vehicles found in independent living communities.
“It used to be you saw a bunch of golf carts plugged in,” says Tracy Price, CEO and founder of Irvine, Calif.-based Qmerit, which partners with electrical contractors to provide charging station buildouts. “Now you see a bunch of Teslas. We used to get calls from people who wanted to cosmetically provide EV charging as an amenity. They said, ‘We want to put two chargers out front.’ Now they're calling and saying, ‘We need 40.’ It’s starting to be a requested feature as opposed to a nice-to-have.”
In that respect, senior living communities are like any other multi-dwelling complex: Landlords often underestimate not only demand for EV charging, but also the operating expenses. For example, an electrical contractor might recommend enough battery storage to meet demand during the peak period when the local utility charges more.
“Your typical senior living facility isn't really contemplating what's going to happen to their utility bill,” Price says. “If it's not done properly, if you don't have load management as part of that, if you don't put in a microgrid, somebody [can] go plug in at the least opportune time. There's a lot of pre-planning that needs to be done. We're seeing people starting to ask the questions, but that's in California.”
Sun Health is taking that kind of long view.
“As we are working with and submitting our needs for future community projects, we have bulleted the design needs for charging and power infrastructure for a growing demand for vehicles, autonomous transportation, signage, and the like,” Yi says.
Respect your elders
In the aging-in-place market, electrical contractors may work with seniors, their adult children, other caregivers, or all of the above. Each has its own set of concerns. For example, some seniors get together to compare notes because they’re wary of being overcharged or sold things they don’t need.
“They don't want to get ripped off by contractors, so they join all these little groups,” says Steve Wilcox, owner of Wilcox Electric. “There's a couple little town and neighborhood things like that that we're involved with right now.”
Another way to build confidence in customers’ eyes is to get certification from an organization such as the Living in Place Institute’s Home & Accessibility Trade Specialist (HATS) or the NAHB’s Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist (CAPS) program. These certifications also can help with lead generation.
“When NAHB started the CAPS program, we worked with them to help develop it,” says AARP’s Harrell.
Wilcox believes the profession has a responsibility to weed out the bad actors.
“The real problem with the [senior] market is the crooks,” Wilcox says. “As an industry and as tradesmen, it's our responsibility to take care of these people. Let's be stewards.”
Tim Kridel is an independent analyst and freelance writer. He can be reached at [email protected].
Sidebar: Aging in Place
Hyattsville, Maryland-based Wilcox Electric often does work for seniors who want to remain in their current homes. Here are a few upgrade suggestions from Rich Shumway, who’s in charge of smart home technologies:
- Video doorbells (such as Ring) and smart thermostats (such as Nest) for people with mobility issues.
- Higher outlets to minimize bending over. “Back when I was wiring houses 15 years ago, we wired up a small retirement community, and all the outlets were 20 inches to the top of the box,” Shumway says.
- Motion-activated lighting for bathrooms and closets. “Jamb switches are also great for closets.”
- Timer/smart switches for exterior lights. “I try to discourage customers from using traditional in-wall timer switches because smart switches are cheap and have more functionality.”
- Lighted GFCIs for bathrooms or lighted outlets for hallways, bedrooms and bathrooms.
- Remotes to control lights.
- Laundry circuits for upper floors instead of in the basement.
- Heated steps and sidewalks.
- Audible-trip GFCIs for hard-to-access areas.
- Moisture sensors. “We had a customer who had a pretty severe water leak in their basement, but the customer couldn’t go down her basement stairs and was unaware.”
