Service
Commercial electrical work
Shops, offices, restaurants and small industrial: service sizing, three phase, fit-ups, and work done after you close.
Most of what Kelly Electric does is residential, and that is on purpose. But when a business in the Halifax Regional Municipality needs a commercial electrician, that is real work Rory takes, and the lockup has said RESIDENTIAL, COMMERCIAL and SERVICE since the day it was drawn.
This page is about what is actually different when the building is a business rather than a house.
What a commercial electrician does differently
Three things, and none of them are about the wiring.
The cost of the power being off. This is the first thing a commercial electrician has to plan around. In a house, an afternoon without power is an inconvenience. In a shop it is a day’s takings, and in a restaurant it is a day’s takings plus whatever was in the walk-in. That is why almost every commercial job here happens after close, and why the first question is when you shut rather than when you are free.
What the inspector is looking for. Residential inspection is largely about the service, the grounding and the circuits. Commercial adds exit and emergency lighting, which is inspected in its own right and which a fire official will look for separately. It is the single most common thing missing when a unit is not signed off.
Capacity, before anything else. A house has one question about capacity and it is usually the panel. A commercial unit has three: what the service can carry, what the landlord has actually allocated to your unit, and whether the equipment you are bringing in was specified for the supply that exists.
Three phase
Three phase is the heavier supply commercial buildings get. It exists because large motors, commercial refrigeration, rooftop HVAC and shop machinery run better and cheaper on it than they would on the single phase supply a house has.
It matters for one practical reason: equipment is specified for one or the other and they are not interchangeable. A compressor, a mixer or a piece of shop machinery bought secondhand is frequently three phase, and the unit it is going into frequently is not. That is a problem worth finding before it is delivered.
If you do not know what your building has, it takes one look at the service to say.
Tenant fit-ups
Taking over a unit is the job where the electrical scope is most often wrong on paper.
The drawings show what the space is meant to become. What they do not show is what is behind the wall from the last tenant, whether the panel has spare capacity for your equipment, or whether the previous fit-up was ever inspected. Older Halifax commercial stock, particularly on the peninsula, has usually been fitted out three or four times.
What a fit-up normally needs:
- Dedicated circuits for equipment, counted from the actual equipment list rather than the drawings
- Receptacle layout that matches how the space will really be used
- Lighting, including whether the existing fixtures are worth keeping
- Exit and emergency lighting, which is not optional and is inspected
- Data and low voltage runs coordinated so they are not pulled twice
- Lighting that suits the work being done in the space, not just the ceiling grid it inherited
The most useful thing Rory can do on a fit-up is look at the unit before you sign. A unit with an undersized service or no spare capacity is not a dealbreaker, but it is a number, and it is better in the negotiation than in the build.
Exit and emergency lighting
This is the one that holds up openings.
Exit signage and emergency lighting are life safety systems. They are inspected, they are tested, and a fire official will look for them independently of the electrical inspection. Battery units have a service life and the batteries in an existing unit are frequently dead, which is not visible until they are tested.
If you are taking over a space that already has them, they still need testing. Inheriting them is not the same as having them.
Service upgrades and after-hours work
A commercial service upgrade is the same trade as a residential panel upgrade with two differences: it is usually larger, and the utility disconnect has to be scheduled around your business rather than around the commercial electrician.
Nova Scotia Power schedules the disconnect and reconnect. That is the constraint everything else moves around, and it is why a commercial service change is planned in weeks rather than days. It does not cost more. It just cannot be done on Thursday because Thursday suits.
Work happens when you are closed. Evenings, early mornings, Sundays. Say when you shut.
What this commercial electrician does not take
Worth saying plainly, because it saves everyone a conversation.
He is one person. A large new build with a general contractor, a construction schedule and several trades on site at once needs a crew, and you are better served by a firm that has one. Service work, fit-ups, upgrades, repairs and small to mid commercial projects are the fit.
If a job is not right for him he will say so on the phone rather than after quoting it.
Something failing right now is a different call. That is emergency service, it is answered around the clock, and a business with no power does not wait until Monday. If the building needs to keep running through an outage, a standby generator is the other half of that conversation.
What will this cost?
Nobody can price this down the phone, and anyone who does is guessing. What you can find out now is what will decide the number on your house.
Common questions
Do you do commercial work, or just houses?
Both. Most of the work is residential and that is deliberate, but Rory takes commercial jobs and has the certification to pull the permit for them. What he does not do is pretend a job is a fit for him when it is not: a twenty unit build with a general contractor and a schedule is a different business, and you are better served by a firm with a crew.
Can you work outside our opening hours?
Yes, and for most commercial jobs it is the only sensible way. Power off in a shop at eleven on a Tuesday morning costs more than the electrical work does. Say when you close and the work happens then.
What is three phase and do I have it?
Three phase is a heavier supply than a house gets, used where there are large motors, commercial refrigeration, HVAC, or shop machinery. If your building has it there will be more conductors at the service and the panel will say so. If you are not sure, it takes one look.
We are taking over a unit. What needs doing before we open?
Usually more than the landlord's drawings suggest. The three that catch people are exit and emergency lighting, which is inspected and which the fire official will look for, dedicated circuits for whatever equipment you are bringing in, and whether the existing service has capacity for it at all. That last one is worth answering before you sign, not after.
Who pulls the permit, us or you?
Rory does. In Nova Scotia a wiring permit can only be obtained by the holder of a valid certificate in the Electrical Construction trade, so it is part of the job. A landlord or a general contractor asking you to arrange your own is asking for something you cannot do.