Thermal-camera wiring checks that housing societies book for every flat
TL;DR Breakerly sends trained technicians with thermal cameras and test meters to check the wiring, earthing and distribution boards in every flat of a housing society in one drive. Each household gets a plain repair list ranked by danger. The society pays per flat, and residents pick who does the repairs.
Fires kill thousands of Indians at home every year. NCRB data for 2024 show 5,971 fire accidents and 5,888 deaths, with 3,585 of the accidents in residential buildings, and electrical short circuits were behind 17.2% of fire deaths[1].
It's been getting worse for a decade. Short-circuit fire deaths reached 2,255 in 2015, up 48% from 2011, and were blamed mostly on loose wiring, poor fittings and neglected maintenance[2].
And nobody checks. You call an electrician only when something trips or sparks. The biggest home-services platform lists dozens of electrical repair jobs, from MCB swaps at ₹149 to board replacement at ₹279, but no wiring inspection[3].
What it does, in regulatory terms: inspection and reporting only. Breakerly does not carry out repairs. Any repair goes to an electrician licensed under the state's rules made under the Electricity Act 2003, so check your state's licensing requirements before launch.
A two-person team spends 30–45 minutes per flat. They scan the distribution board and heavy-load sockets with a thermal camera while the AC and geyser run, test earthing and the residual-current device, and note overloaded extension boards and old aluminium wiring. The household gets a one-page report with photos, sorted into fix now, fix this year and fine. The society gets a building summary with no flat named, and photos are kept only with each household's consent under the DPDP Act[4].
The seed pitched AI safety assessments that cut insurance costs. I found no Indian home insurer that publishes a discount for an inspection, and few households buy home cover anyway, so that lever is weak. I kept the goal of preventing accidents and moved the bill to the housing society, which already spends on fire safety for common areas.
Residents benefit but the society's managing committee pays from the maintenance fund, often before summer when AC loads peak. Families who are buying, renting out or renovating a flat are a second buyer. Repairs are where electricians make their money, and Breakerly can pass leads to a vetted list without taking repair work itself. Electrician visits today cost from ₹49 for a consultation plus parts and labour[3].
The 2024 NCRB figures, published in mid-2026, again put residential buildings at the top of fire locations[1]. Homes now run more ACs, geysers, induction cooktops and EV chargers than their wiring was built for. The same platform already lists EV charger installs at ₹999–1,499[3], which is a load older flats never planned for.
There is no public figure for spending on home electrical inspections in India, and I found no firm selling them at scale. The firmest signal is the size of the problem - 3,585 residential fire accidents in 2024[1] and short-circuit deaths that doubled as a share of fire deaths between 2011 and 2015[2]. You'll have to prove demand society by society.
Home-services platforms and local electricians fix faults once someone finds them, but sell no standard inspection[3]. Fire-safety firms service extinguishers and alarms in the common areas of housing societies, not the wiring inside flats. Commercial buildings get electrical audits from engineering firms, priced for factories. I found no consumer brand doing flat-by-flat checks for societies, though the search wasn't exhaustive.
| Difficulty | Moderate (40/100) |
| Starting capital | ₹35–70 L |
| Time to launch | 4–6 months |
The equipment is cheap and the method is known. The hard parts are selling to managing committees, which move at their own sweet pace, and keeping reports consistent across technicians so a "fix now" means the same thing in every flat. Liability cover for an inspection-only firm may also take a while to arrange.
Inspection may or may not need a licence depending on your state, and repairs certainly do.
Building this outside India? The categories above usually have a local equivalent, so check with your own regulator.
Don't let AI decide that a flat is safe. A qualified electrical engineer checks and signs off every finding.
Want to work out the AI layer for Breakerly? Talk to Yash →
I like this as a practical service for a founder with an electrical engineering background and patience for housing-society politics. It isn't for you if you want software margins. First prove two things - that one society in three you pitch books a full drive, and that a third of households act on a "fix now" item within a month.
Plan for about ₹35–70 L, mostly for thermal cameras, test kit, trained teams and selling to societies.
Repairs need licensed electricians under state rules. Whether inspection alone needs a licence varies, so check with your state electrical inspectorate.
Yes. Many countries already have electrical inspection trades. Check local licensing for inspectors and data rules first.
The free Breakerly validation kit has the line-by-line capital breakdown, the effort scoring, the licensing and liability checklist, a 14-day validation sprint with pass/fail targets, a 90-day launch plan, 10 interview questions for committees and residents, and 5 assumptions to test. Download the kit →
Thinking about building Breakerly or something close to it? The make-or-break work is getting society committees to book a full drive and writing reports that limit your liability, and that's the kind of thing I help founders with. If you need a hand, you know where to find me. Talk to Yash →
For illustration only. Names are fictional and ideas hypothetical; sourced facts are real but may be out of date. Nothing here is legal, financial or professional advice, and Yash Khatri is not personally liable for any use of it. Read the full disclaimer.