Should an HVAC company add electrical services?

Why HVAC owners keep asking

Many HVAC installs now end with a call to an electrician. A heat pump replacing a gas furnace may need a new circuit or a panel with more capacity; a mini-split needs a dedicated circuit and a disconnect; an older home may need a service upgrade before any of it can happen. When that electrician is booked out for two weeks, your install waits, your crew is idle and the customer blames you.

So the question is less about chasing a new market than about controlling your own schedule and keeping margin that currently goes to a subcontractor. Those are good reasons. They still need to be tested against licensing, staffing and the very different nature of electrical service work.

The labor market for both trades

The two trades are similar in size and both are growing. Census County Business Patterns counted 111,207 plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractor establishments and 83,342 electrical contractor establishments with paid employees in 2023^[2]. BLS projects employment of electricians to grow 9% from 2025 to 2035, with about 72,700 openings a year^[1], while HVAC mechanics and installers are projected to grow 11%^[3].

Recent hiring tells a similar story. Electrical contractors employed 1,174,900 people in September 2026, up 4.5% on a year earlier^[4], while plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors employed 1,346,900, up 1.6%^[5]. Electricians are in demand, which is good for the work available and hard on any company trying to hire one.

Electrical labor is also slightly more expensive. Average annual payroll per employee in 2023 was $76,545 at electrical contractors versus $73,693 at plumbing and HVAC contractors^[2]. Small differences add up across a division, so the electrical side needs its own pricing rather than borrowing HVAC rates.

Three ways to offer electrical work

Licensing is the gate

Most US states require electricians to be licensed^[1], and many also license the electrical contracting business itself. Requirements vary: some states require a licensed master electrician or qualifier tied to the company, some set supervision ratios for apprentices, and local jurisdictions often require permits and inspections for circuits, panels and service upgrades. HVAC licensing, which only some states and localities require^[3], is a separate credential; do not assume it extends to circuits or panels.

1. Read your state electrical board's rules for contractor licensing and the qualifier role.
2. Confirm whether your HVAC license allows any low-voltage or equipment-connection work, and where that stops.
3. Ask the local permit office what an HVAC-plus-electrical job needs: one permit or two, one inspection or two.
4. Check what happens to the electrical license if the qualifying electrician leaves the company.

That last point matters most. If one person's license holds up the division, you need a plan for their departure on the day you hire them.

Staffing the division

Most electricians learn the trade through an apprenticeship^[1], so the classic structure is one licensed electrician leading one or two apprentices. Your first hire therefore has to do three jobs: hold or qualify the license, do the work, and train. That person is hard to find and worth paying properly.

• Look first at your current electrical subcontractor's team; a lead who wants steadier hours may move.
• Offer what HVAC companies can offer that small electrical shops often cannot: a full schedule from your installs, a newer van, dispatch support and benefits.
• Write the role around install support first and service calls second, so the electrician is busy from day one.
• Budget for apprentice training time and the state's apprenticeship requirements.

Where the cross-selling really is

The best electrical work for an HVAC company is the work your own installs create, followed by the questions your technicians already hear in homes. Be realistic about the rest: general electrical service, such as troubleshooting a tripping circuit, is its own skill set and its own phone script.

• Install-driven: dedicated circuits, disconnects, panel upgrades and service changes for heat pumps and mini-splits.
• Efficiency-driven: thermostat and controls wiring, attic fan circuits, dehumidifier circuits.
• Inspection-driven: issues your HVAC technicians spot during maintenance visits, such as an overloaded or outdated panel.
• Customer-driven: EV charger circuits and generator connections, which bring their own permits and, for generators, a separate set of skills.

Pricing and estimating electrical work

HVAC estimating habits do not transfer cleanly. Electrical jobs carry permit and inspection steps that can add a second trip, panel work can uncover problems behind the cover that change the scope, and service upgrades often depend on the utility's schedule rather than yours. Build those realities into the price book before the first job.

• Price install-support work as fixed options attached to the HVAC proposal, such as a dedicated circuit, a disconnect or a panel upgrade, so customers see one clear bundle.
• Include permit, inspection and return-trip time in each option rather than absorbing them.
• Write a scope clause for hidden conditions, such as aluminum branch wiring or a panel that fails inspection, with how changes are approved.
• Track actual hours against the estimate for the first 50 jobs and adjust the price book monthly.

Changes to dispatch, phones and software

Adding a trade changes how the office works. Callers will start asking electrical questions, and the person answering needs a short intake script: what is happening, is anything hot, sparking or smelling of burning, is power out to the whole house or one area, and how old the panel is. Anything that sounds like a hazard follows an emergency path to the electrician on call, not a booking slot next week.

Your field service software needs electrical job types, its own price book and the electrician's calendar, and your reporting needs to split revenue and costs by trade from day one. Set those up before launch, not after the first busy month.

Questions for a potential electrical partner

1. What response time can you commit to in writing for install support, in peak and off-peak seasons?
2. Who pulls permits and schedules inspections, and who meets the inspector?
3. How do you handle a panel or service problem discovered mid-job?
4. What warranty do you give on your work, and how do we handle a callback?
5. Can you share your license and insurance certificates and keep them current with us?

Decision criteria

An in-house division makes sense when most of these are true. If only two or three are, a dedicated subcontractor with a written agreement on response times is the better step.

• You subcontract electrical work on a meaningful share of installs every month, year-round.
• Installs regularly wait more than a few days for the electrician.
• You have identified a licensed electrician who can qualify the business and wants the job.
• Your insurer has quoted the change to your coverage.
• Your dispatch and field service software can handle a second trade's job types and pricing.
• You can fund the division's first six months of payroll without the core business feeling it.

Example: a ten-truck HVAC company

Example (fictional): Lakeshore Air installed about 40 heat pumps a month in spring and fall and subcontracted the electrical work on roughly half of them. The subcontractor's lead times grew to nine days in peak season. The owner first signed a written service agreement guaranteeing a 72-hour response, which helped for a year.

When the subcontractor's lead electrician mentioned wanting a steadier schedule, Lakeshore hired him as the qualifying electrician for a new division, with one apprentice. The division started with install support only and added service calls in its second quarter. The owner kept a separate profit and loss for the division from the start, so he could see whether electrical was profitable on its own rather than hidden inside HVAC installs.

If you decide not to build it

Partnering is a respectable answer. Choose one electrical contractor, agree response times and pricing for install support in writing, share schedules a week ahead, and send them the general electrical calls you do not want. Many of the benefits arrive without the licensing risk. For the general method, see the service line decision checklist, and for value implications, how home service businesses are valued.