Every commercial build or renovation has a point where making changes is easy, cheap, and entirely reversible. Once that period is over, changing something becomes much more difficult. Every company has a list of decisions that fall into this category, and realizing that ahead of time is one of the most important things a business owner can do.
Panel Location and Capacity
The location and capacity of your electrical panel is one of the few areas where an incorrectly made call will be very expensive and time-consuming to reverse. Any panel that is under-sized for your current or future needs or placed in an inconvenient location is going to cause headaches down the road when you need additional circuits. Once walls are up and drywall is in place, you will have to cut through it to get to the panel and run new circuits.
Outlet Location and Density
Companies frequently underestimate the convenience of having enough outlets. Adding a new outlet after construction requires cutting through drywall, running new wiring, and repairing the wall afterward. This can make a simple addition both expensive and time-consuming, something proper planning during the rough-in stage can easily prevent. Installing too few outlets or placing them in inconvenient locations becomes significantly more expensive to correct once the walls are up.
Circuits for Known Equipment
Major equipment that has particularly high or unique power consumption requirements must have dedicated circuits. It is much less expensive to plan for these circuits from the ground up than it is to retrofit an existing build to accommodate them. If a company plans on requiring a dedicated circuit for any equipment, the matter should be discussed well in advance of any renovation or construction.
Low Voltage Infrastructure
Wiring for cameras and other low voltage equipment rarely gets attention alongside the main building infrastructure, to the dismay of many business owners afterwards. Once the walls are up, it becomes far more expensive to retrofit the necessary infrastructure to accommodate the needs of the business. This is especially true for networking companies because they can find themselves paying dearly to retrofit the necessary infrastructure when they need additional ports or cameras down the line.
Lighting
Lighting rarely gets as much scrutiny as it deserves; the layout of the lighting fixtures and switches determines to a large extent how easy it will be for the workers to access different parts of the building and how much electricity the building will consume long-term. It’s much easier to get the lighting right before the ceiling closes up, as any changes afterwards will require working with an open ceiling.
Room for the Future
A lot of renovations fail because they simply do not plan for the future. Solar panel installation, additional servers, vehicle charging stations, and other equipment require significant infrastructure to be built in advance if the company wants to avoid spending an unreasonable amount on retrofitting. A little extra room built into the conduits or service panels is nearly always worth it; adding that same degree of capacity after the fact is much more expensive and disruptive to the business.
Getting It Right the First Time Around
The common theme between all of the considerations listed above is that they are all much less expensive and easier to implement before the walls are up and the rough-in is complete, and far more expensive and disruptive to the business afterwards. The design and rough-in stage is by far the most important part of any commercial renovation or new build, and getting it right is crucial to not wasting money and time.
MV Power Solutions works with businesses throughout the Denver metro area precisely during this stage, helping them realize what considerations might be difficult and expensive to reverse later. Making the right decision on the panel location, circuit breakers’ capacity, outlets’ placement and much more before the walls are up is an essential part of any construction, and it is what the professionals at MV Power Solutions can help you with. Contact us today at 720-287-2305 or fill out our contact form online.