How can I find out how many watts per square foot it requires to operate a commerical building?

Question

I can use the roughest estimate, I just need a ball park figure. Any website that has standards to go by?

South Texas climate, very hot. Huge Retail Mall is the type of building

Answer 1

Are you looking for the electrical design requirements from the National Electric Code (NEC)?

Or are you interested in what the actual demand will be on the electric meter?

The NEC defines 3 watts per ft² for lighting and requires every duplex outlet be considered as 1.5 amps of load. The electrical requirements of HVAC equipment is also over estimated. Motors are computed at their worst case amperage, regardless of their actual load or usage patterns. The largest motor is assumed to draw 125% of it's running load.

Some cities have energy efficiency requirements for NEW buildings that limit the lighting load to less than 1 watt per ft². The energy efficiency of AC equipment keeps improving. The actual electrical demand for AC equipment is less than 1 kW per ton of cooling capacity.

In reality, in modern commercial buildings it is not uncommon for the total demand (as measured on the electric meter) to average out to less than 6 watts per ft².

Obviously these numbers can change depending on the type of activity and equipment in the commerical building. The 6 watt value is typical of an office building environment. The food court area will likely run higher. However it is offset by the walkways, receiving and storage areas as well as the employee only halls behind the scenes.

Call your local utility and ask to speak with someone in their Marketing department. They generally have done load studies for various commercial customers.

Answer 2

Watts Per Square Foot

Answer 3

Need more information -- "commercial" could be office space, retail, food service, whatever, and the needs for these can vary GREATLY!

Your climate will also make a HUGE difference in the calculation, since air conditioning can present quite a large addition to the power requirements of a building depending upon its construction and the region where it's built.

Even with the most efficient lighting, you'll need 1 watt per square foot (as much as 2.5 watts per square foot is more typical) just to handle that.

Without knowing at least what region of the country you're in, no ballpark figure is really possible that will get you where you need to go with this.

Here's a site that provides you with the sort of information you're after for the lighting portion of the equation. Calculate the types of space involved in your building and start multiplying:

http://www.southface-energycode.org/Com.htm

Edit:

OK, just checked back in, and note both your use model and location. Here's hoping you plan to use the latest and more efficient equipment. Remember that food service vs. regular retail can make a big difference. This figure is for an average mall with a "food court" of a size that correponds to the rest of the retail space, and a typical width/height of "mall" space (pretty and open isn't always cheap to cool -- and you've got to cover your peak demand problems):

18W/sq ft for HVAC
1.5W/sq ft for lighting (higher in retail areas, lower in mall)
6W/sq ft for tenant demand and convenience demand
.

Answer 4

You need to search for the number of candle-power needed. 1 candle power is the amount of light put out by one candle one foot away from an object. The noonday sun puts out something like 1000 candle power. if you have an eight foot ceiling you will need less lumens (total light output) to achieve the same candle power (total light output / the square of the distance) than if you have a 12 foot ceiling. So assuming a ten foot ceiling, a one square foot room and a lighting requirement of 100 candlepower you would need a bulb that put out 10,000 lumens. this could be achieved with an incandecent bulb of massive wattage requirements, or a flourescent tube of smaller wattage requirements. I was just making up numbers so I don't know that this will work for you, but it should set you on the right track.

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Answer 5

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Answer 6

TABLE 14 Canadian Electrical Code (see Rule 8-210)
WATTS PER SQUARE METER AND DEMAND FACTORS FOR SERVICES AND FEEDERS FOR VARIOUS TYPES OF OCCUPANCY

INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL- 25 watts per square meter- Demand factor, 100% service conductors, 100% Feeders

8-210 Other Types of Occupancy. The minimum ampacity of service or feeder conductors for the types of occupancies specified in Table 14 shall be based on the following:

a) A basic load to be calculated on the basis of watts per square meter required by Table 14 for the area served based on the outside dimensions, with application of demand factors as indicated therein; plus
b) Special loads such as electric space heating, air conditioning, power loads, show window lighting, stage lighting, etc, based on the rating of the equipment installed with such demand factors as are permitted by this Code.

Answer 7

To operate the common area, you are safe with a figure of 2-3W. /Sq. Ft. for lighting and add your
HVAC estimate.
Your trouble will come in estimating the tenant loads which can vary from 3-4 W/ Sq. Ft. for simple retail to 10 -12 W/ Sq. Ft for food service.
You will need to provide service switchgear to cover these, even if the tenants are separately metered.

Answer 8

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Answer 9

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Answer 10

single family dwelling how many watts per square foot