Commercial kitchen electrical for San Antonio restaurants

Start from the equipment schedule

Every fryer, oven, dish machine and cooler has a cut sheet with its voltage, phase, load and connection. We build the circuit list and the load calculation from that schedule, so the panel and the feeder are sized for the kitchen you are actually opening. A unit swapped late is checked against its circuit before it is set.

• Circuits from each cut sheet
• Panel and feeder sized by load calculation
• Late equipment changes checked before they are set

Hoods, exhaust fans and make-up air

The hood, its exhaust fan and the make-up air unit are wired so they work together, and the fire suppression system's shutdown of the cooking equipment is wired the way the suppression contractor's drawings show. That interlock is one of the first things an inspector tests.

GFCI protection in the kitchen

NEC 210.8(B) requires GFCI protection for receptacles in commercial kitchens, and it reaches equipment that plugs in near sinks and on the line. A GFCI that trips with every start of a piece of equipment is a sign of a fault or the wrong device, not something to bypass. We plan the protection with the equipment so it holds.

Walk-in coolers and freezers

Each walk-in's condenser and evaporator need their own circuits from the refrigeration contractor's sheets, so one failure does not take down another box. Losing a walk-in overnight costs product, which is why many kitchens put them on standby power.

Permit, inspections and the opening date

Inside the city limits the permit goes through the City of San Antonio Development Services Department under the 2023 NEC, adopted effective May 1, 2025. The rough-in, above-ceiling and final inspections are scheduled so they do not hold up the health inspection or the other trades, and the opening date sets the plan.

What goes wrong, and how we prevent it

Heat and grease dry out cords and loosen connections behind the line, and a loose connection carrying a fryer's load heats up every day until it fails. We use the cord and connection types the equipment calls for, and a maintenance agreement checks the connections behind the line on a schedule. When something fails during service, our emergency line answers 24 hours a day.