Historical Data

Leveraging data from the electric utility provider, Elliot Services can analyze historical billing patterns to identify peak power demand trends for up to a year.

Assessing the Power Needs for Your Commercial Building

You will need to make some calculations before choosing a generator. Several factors affect your property’s power needs, including lighting, HVAC usage, and general heavy machinery.

While you could try to calculate how much power your building needs on your own, we strongly urge you to work with a professional electrician for this process. They have the technical know-how to calculate an accurate power load to ensure your generator is sized appropriately.

By investing in an electrician to calculate your power needs, you know you’re getting expert advice to minimize the risk of complications.

Load Types

The load types your generator has to support also factor into the correct size. Some equipment might need more energy to power up, and you need to ensure your generator can keep up. Your professional electrician will consider the main load types while determining your total power requirements, including:

• Continuous load: Equipment that runs on a continuous load requires a constant maximum current to run properly. This includes electric lighting, process pumps, compressors, water heaters, and fridges.
• Intermittent Load: Equipment with an intermittent load only operates for a portion of the day or consumes different amounts of electricity depending on usage.
• Motor Starting Load: Some equipment may need a large amount of electricity to start up and get the motor running. In some cases, this can be upwards of six times the running load.

The Generator Sizing Formula

Electricians are well-versed in calculating how much energy a commercial property needs and typically use load calculations for this process. They also have a formula to help them size generators to account for current needs and future growth.

This includes calculations for the full load in kilowatts (kW) and reserve capacity. Adding the full load in kW and reserve capacity gives you the total kW in energy the generator needs to operate. These calculations are as follows:

• Full load kW = amps x supply voltage / 1,000
• Reserve capacity = full load in kW x 0.25

Choosing Between Backup and Prime Power Generators

At some point during the process, you need to decide whether you want a backup or prime generator. An electrician can discuss the pros and cons of both, but these are the basics:

• A backup generator, sometimes called a standby generator, serves as a secondary power source to keep your property powered during occasional outages.
• A prime power generator operates as the property’s primary power source. It’s designed to run continuously and is well-suited for operations off the main power grid.

The Importance of Proper Generator Sizing

Choosing the right generator size for your property’s needs is critical to avoid spending unnecessarily on equipment you won’t fully utilize while ensuring you have enough generative abilities to power your property sufficiently. We always recommend working with a high-quality, reputable electrician to help you achieve this balancing point.

At Elliot Services, we’re ready to help you identify the correct generator size for your needs.