Commercial electrical wiring is kind of like wiring a residential home only that this time it’s on a much larger scale. This means bigger capacity components (wire gauges and panels…), bigger risk and of course a bigger budget. The electrician needed for these type of projects must be properly certified and insured (or maybe even bonded). Somethings are just way above DIY or you regular handyman and better left for the pros.
One of the major differences between commercial and residential electrical wiring is that; residential wiring is mainly single phased and sometimes it’s combined with a 2 phase circuit connection. Commercial electrical wiring on the other hand requires a 3-phase circuit. This is of course due to obvious higher power demands. This also means that different classes of materials (to manage bigger loads) are used.
In general, commercial 3-phase power can be sub-divided into 4 main categories; (a) Special 4 Wire (b) Common 4 Wire (c) Common 3 Wire and (d) 3 Wire with Grounded Hot Leg. Only the meter can tell you what voltages you are receiving though… The rule of thumb is that commercial electric wiring runs through raceways, metal conduits, ceiling rafters or armored cable.
Commercial electrical wiring doesn’t have to be heavy duty as Michael Shatzkin points out in a very interesting article on testing both light commercial and residential wiring for faults. There are some lesser dangerous low voltage wiring tasks like hooking up security systems or telephone lines e.t.c.
Nevertheless, they still require some high level of expertise or the entire network of wires might have some loose ends or simply fail to work! Here is what Michael says about commercial low voltage wiring:
Troubleshooting residential and light-commercial wiring
Some sophistication is required when you are troubleshooting telephone wiring systems, because there are many ways that problems can arise if the multicolored, color-coded conductors are not properly matched and devices are not correctly wired. Polarity must always be observed, especially when making the transition from one color code to another. Most electrical house-wiring problems show up immediately with a blown fuse or activated circuit breaker, but many telephone wiring system problems do not show up immediately… find out more about light commercial electric wiring
Another thing to note about commercial electrical wiring is that just like residential wirig, you need to do some thorough calculations to determine the recommended load capacity as stipulated in Art. 220 of the NEC regulations. Mike Holt does a good job sharing some bit of vital information about calculating commercial loads.
Commercial Electrical Load Calculations
Two items associated with this type of calculation repeatedly need clarification:
Voltage
The voltage to use for your calculations depends on the system design voltage. Thus when you calculate branch-circuit, feeder, and service loads, you must use a nominal system voltage of 120V, 120/240V, 208Y/120V, 240V, 347V, 480Y/277V, 480V, 600Y/347V, or 600V unless otherwise specified (220.2) (Fig. 1 below).
Rounding
Refer to 200.2(B) to end the rounding mystery. When the ampere calculation exceeds a whole number by 0.5 or more, round up to the next whole number. If the extra is 0.49 or less, round down to the next whole number. For, example, round 29.5A up to 30A, but round 29.45A down to 29A… learn a few commercial voltage calculation tricks
To shed some light on what “hands on” commercial electrical wiring entails, here is a video posted by Franck Benedetti on “Commercial Wiring Make Up and Trim Work “. Watch as the basics are explained in black and white and clear enough even for a novice DIYer to follow:
So there it is… commercial electrical wiring is not so different from residential wiring but it’s quite clear that you will need different wire gauges and higher rated equipment to web together a safe commercial electrical circuit.
Image Credit: Image 1 Image 2 Image 3
The post A Peak Into Commercial Electrical Wiring appeared first on Electrician Squad.
from Electrician Squad http://sacramento.electriciansquad.com/commercial-electrical-wiring
I am upbeat to discover this post exceptionally helpful for me, as it contains part of data. I generally want to peruse the quality substance and this thing I found in you post. A debt of gratitude is in order for sharing. camping generators
ReplyDelete