# 100 amps or 200 amps ?



## Fred Sober (Sep 10, 2008)

*Electrical Design of a Commercial Facility*

I have designed, engineered and built over 300 restaurants, hotels, casinos, lounges, etc. In determining proper service size it is important to first do an electric service calculation. The next thing is to study the operation and use of the equipment during operations and set your own realistic "demand" criteria. The NEC tables for demand are useless for certain operations. Just because the NEC says you can do something, gives no guarantee that the operation will work. I engineered a "capcold" operation that involved all food items being precooked in an FDA supervised commisary kitchen and then flash frozen. The individual restaurants were basically "thermalize and portion" operations. In that useage, all the electric thermalizing equipment was run constantly, and was therefore actually "constant use" during the hours of operation. So using the NEC approved demand tables would have meant that they would be overloading the service and popping breakers constantly. Failure to properly design and engineer the electric will doom this operation to failure. Make sure you use a licensed professional to do the design. Then you have recourse if it turns out to be wrong. Most electricians and electrical contractors cannot properly do this kind of design. I am constantly contacted by architects and electrical contractors who want to pay me to do their plan sets and electrical calculations.


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## Sparky Joe (Apr 29, 2006)

I particularly liked the part about 
"if I tell them the service is too small I would lose the job"
I suppose a different designer would come with a different electrical service.

Fact is you gotta find someone who can look at the proposed space like an electrical contractor or electrical engineer while providing them with spec sheets of the proposed equipment to be installed.
Or find your client a realtor to find a space that suits their needs. 

In my uninformed opinion I'd assume the former to be the most cost effective, especially if it's the location the client wants.


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