# Commercial service sizing



## wildleg (Apr 12, 2009)

this may sound like a silly answer, but if you don't have any loads, what do you need electrical service for ?


----------



## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

Lacking data, I don't see where you have much choice but to calculate them full size. Sorta the same way strip malls are done where the tenants are unknown.


----------



## telsa (May 22, 2015)

High End = protected from the elements ?

Figure on 3VA/ sq-ft.

Such units don't provide 'free power' to the tenants... and usually have the lights on a timer.

When in use, you can figure everybody and his brother is swarming over the joint.

That's what you have to design to.

You'll also have to look into the load of the management office// cum apartment.

High End mini-warehouses usually have a semi-retired couple living there 24 hours a day.


----------



## Coach529 (Sep 20, 2016)

They are high end storage units. They are owner purchased units. They are built as a bare shell, only code minimum light and single recep. 

Once purchased the owner can do whatever he wants to do, up to a 200 amp panelboard seperately metered. 

At this point I am pricing setting the service and meter sets as well as running conduit to each unit.


----------



## telsa (May 22, 2015)

I would not call such a scheme a storage warehouse.


----------



## Coach529 (Sep 20, 2016)

telsa said:


> I would not call such a scheme a storage warehouse.


Good point. At the price they are marketing them as "Man Caves"....etc


----------



## MechanicalDVR (Dec 29, 2007)

Coach529 said:


> They are high end storage units. They are owner purchased units. They are built as a bare shell, only code minimum light and single recep.
> 
> Once purchased the owner can do whatever he wants to do, up to a 200 amp panelboard seperately metered.
> 
> At this point I am pricing setting the service and meter sets as well as running conduit to each unit.


Then I would go with a plan like a strip mall of empty stores that could house any type of business as Shunk mentioned.


----------



## Coach529 (Sep 20, 2016)

Awesome......thanks guys!!


----------



## TheLivingBubba (Jul 23, 2015)

MDShunk said:


> Lacking data, I don't see where you have much choice but to calculate them full size. Sorta the same way strip malls are done where the tenants are unknown.





MechanicalDVR said:


> Then I would go with a plan like a strip mall of empty stores that could house any type of business as Shunk mentioned.


Last strip mall I did each unit was oversized because you may have a little thrift shop going on. Or you could have an franchise restaurant going in with walk in freezer. Do it is as a design build and let the owner choose.


----------



## MechanicalDVR (Dec 29, 2007)

TheLivingBubba said:


> Last strip mall I did each unit was oversized because you may have a little thrift shop going on. Or you could have an franchise restaurant going in with walk in freezer. Do it is as a design build and let the owner choose.



I think one could rule out a franchise restaurant in a complex like the OP mentioned.


----------



## Southeast Power (Jan 18, 2009)

We have a bit of a trend going on with a small apartment over a big garage. These are for people that live in million dollar condos but want a place for their toys and a little sugar shack/man cave.

We designed one with a three phase house panel just in case someone wanted to swap their service for it if they needed it.


----------



## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

These big storage units with a panel in each unit are often used as "business incubators". Places to have a "shop" that doesn't receive customers. I really do see this as pretty much exactly like a strip mall in terms of the wiring. The owner says "put a 200 amp panel in each one", so that's all you do. Ordinarily, you leave the meter gutter extra long or use a multi-metering stack that has provisions to snap on more metering sections in the future. When the tenant fits it out, the panel will either suit or it won't. If they need more power, they abandon the existing feed and install their own meter on the gutter and run a new feed. No big deal. There was a point in time where I fell into a few strip mall jobs and I just put a 225A 3-phase panel in each one, and left about 6' of gutter stick out beyond the line of meters. I should maybe drive by a couple and see if that ended up being suitable all these years later. The service, as a whole, was calculated as if each of these 225A panels was maxed out, which really only affected the conductor size to the building itself and the conductor size in the gutter for the taps. The utility sometimes will feed it with something that appears pathetically undersized by comparison to your conductors, but that's on them.


----------

