Key takeaways
- A good restaurant electrician starts from the equipment schedule and the cut sheets, not from the floor plan alone.
- The hood interlock, the walk-in circuits and the GFCI layout are where kitchen jobs most often go wrong.
- A second generation restaurant space can save money, but only after someone checks what the old equipment actually left behind.
- Once you are open, the electrician you want is the one who can fix a dead line before the next service, not after it.
A restaurant electrician works in one of the hardest rooms in any building. A commercial kitchen runs heat, grease, water and steady heavy loads for twelve or more hours a day, and every minute the line is down costs the owner money. Picking the right electrician for a restaurant is less about who can bend conduit and more about who understands how a kitchen works, how the inspections run, and how to keep the place open once it is built.
This guide is about choosing and working with that electrician. The code side, including GFCI, dedicated circuits and the hood shutoff, is covered in our post on restaurant electrical requirements in San Antonio. Read that one first if you are still drawing the kitchen.
What to look for in a restaurant electrician
Start with the basics that apply to any commercial job. In Texas, the company needs an electrical contractor license from the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, with a licensed master electrician responsible for the work. Ask for a certificate of insurance showing general liability and workers' compensation. Then ask the questions that are specific to restaurants.
- Have they wired a commercial kitchen before, and do they know the order of the kitchen inspections in the city where you are building?
- Will they work from your equipment schedule and the manufacturer cut sheets, and ask for them before they price the job?
- Do they coordinate with the hood and fire suppression contractor, the refrigeration contractor and the plumber, or do they expect you to do it?
- Can they schedule work after close once you are open, so a repair or an addition does not shut down a service?
- How do they price a change when the chef swaps a piece of equipment halfway through the job?
The answer to the last question matters more than it seems. Restaurant equipment lists change constantly during a build. A contractor who prices each change in writing before doing it keeps your budget honest. One who simply does the work and bills for it later is how a kitchen budget grows without anyone deciding it should.
Hand over the equipment schedule early
The single most useful thing an owner can give a restaurant electrician is a complete equipment schedule with the cut sheet for every piece. The cut sheet tells the electrician the voltage, the phase, the amperage or wattage, the recommended breaker size and the type of connection: a cord and plug, a hardwired connection, or a disconnect within sight of the unit. Without it, the electrician is guessing, and guesses in a kitchen get moved later at your expense.
Many cooking and dish machines run at 208 volts, and some larger units need three-phase power. Fryers, combi ovens, booster heaters for the dish machine and large mixers are the usual heavy hitters. The electrician uses the full list to size the panel and the feeders using the load calculation methods in NEC Article 220. If the building does not have the capacity or the three-phase service the list needs, that is the moment to find out, before the lease is signed if possible.
The hood interlock is a coordination job
Over the cooking line sits the hood, with its exhaust fan, often a make-up air unit, and a fire suppression system. When the suppression system discharges, the fire code typically requires that power to the electric cooking equipment under the hood shut off. Gas appliances get their gas valve closed by the suppression contractor's equipment. The electrician wires the shunt or contactor that kills the electric equipment, and the fans are usually set to keep running or to start so smoke is pulled out.
This is where several trades meet, and it is a common reason a kitchen fails its inspection. The suppression contractor, the hood installer and the electrician have to agree on which circuits drop, where the relay lives, and how it is tested. A restaurant electrician who has done this before will ask for the suppression contractor's wiring diagram and schedule the acceptance test with everyone present.
Walk-ins and refrigeration
Walk-in coolers and freezers are the equipment that loses product when the power fails. The condensing unit, the evaporator, the door heaters and the interior lights each have their own requirements, and the refrigeration contractor usually sets the equipment while the electrician brings power to it. Each unit should be on its own circuit with a disconnect where the code requires one, so a fault on one box does not take down another.
Owners often ask about backup power for refrigeration. A transfer switch and a generator sized to the walk-ins, the ice machine and a few lights can keep inventory cold through an outage. That is a separate decision with its own sizing, and it is worth deciding during the build rather than after the first storm.
Our generator installation service explains how a transfer switch and a standby unit connect to an existing service.
Second generation restaurant spaces
A second generation space is a suite that was already a restaurant. It may come with a hood, a grease trap, a walk-in and a panel that once fed a kitchen. That can save a great deal of money, but only if the electrical that is left actually fits your equipment. The previous tenant's fryers may have been gas where yours are electric. Their panel may have been sized for a smaller menu. Circuits may have been abandoned in place, spliced, or left live behind the line.
- Have the electrician walk the space with your equipment schedule before you sign, and trace what each existing circuit actually feeds.
- Check the panel directory against reality. In a used kitchen it is often wrong.
- Look at the cords, receptacles and connections behind the cooking line for heat damage and grease buildup.
- Confirm the hood interlock still works and still matches the equipment that will sit under it.
A change in the type of business or a major remodel can also trigger a new certificate of occupancy, which brings its own inspection. That is worth asking the building official about early.
We cover that process in our guide to change of occupancy electrical in San Antonio, and the full build-out sequence on our tenant build-out page.
Grease, heat and water are hard on wiring
A kitchen wears out electrical parts faster than an office does. Grease settles on receptacles and inside boxes. Heat from the line dries out cord insulation and loosens connections. Water from cleaning finds its way into anything that is not rated for it. Cords get pinched when equipment is pulled out to clean behind it and pushed back.
The signs to watch for are discolored or warm receptacles, plugs that fit loosely, cords with cracked jackets, GFCI devices that trip more and more often, and breakers that feel hot. Any of these is a reason to call before the next service, not a week later. A loose connection carrying a fryer's load heats up every day until it fails, and it can start a fire behind the line where no one is looking.
Repairs while you are open
Once a restaurant is open, the electrician's job changes. The question is no longer how to pass inspection, it is how to get a dead fryer, a tripped walk-in or a dark dining room back before the dinner rush. That means an electrician who answers the phone, can diagnose the fault quickly, and can schedule larger work after close so the kitchen keeps running.
At Wattsmith, we give you a written price for the repair before we do it, and we schedule planned work around your hours, including nights and early mornings before prep starts. If a repair turns up something bigger, such as a panel that cannot carry a new piece of equipment, you get that in writing too, with the choice of when to do it.
Restaurants with more than one location, or owners who want the kitchen checked on a schedule, often move to a maintenance agreement. For a one time problem, our electrical repair service covers how we find and fix faults.
Planning the next change
Menus change, and so do kitchens. Adding a second fryer, a new combi oven or an ice machine is not just a matter of finding an empty receptacle. Each addition should be checked against the circuit, the panel and the service it will draw from. The cheapest time to plan for growth is during the original build, when a few spare circuits and a little extra panel space cost very little compared to a service upgrade later.
If you are planning a restaurant or a remodel, our commercial electrical services page covers everything else we do for businesses, and the same planning applies to retail and franchise build-outs that share a center with a restaurant.