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Lecture 11 Electrification of Commercial Installation

The document provides guidance on planning electrical installations for commercial buildings. It discusses key considerations like reception and distribution of main supply, design of the system including load calculation and equipment sizing, and installation of distribution boards. Guidelines are given for selection of wiring methods, cables, switchboards and other components. Earthling arrangements and preparation of estimates are also covered. The document aims to help electrical engineers properly design electrical systems that meet safety and load requirements for commercial facilities.

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BUKENYA BEEE-2026
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685 views

Lecture 11 Electrification of Commercial Installation

The document provides guidance on planning electrical installations for commercial buildings. It discusses key considerations like reception and distribution of main supply, design of the system including load calculation and equipment sizing, and installation of distribution boards. Guidelines are given for selection of wiring methods, cables, switchboards and other components. Earthling arrangements and preparation of estimates are also covered. The document aims to help electrical engineers properly design electrical systems that meet safety and load requirements for commercial facilities.

Uploaded by

BUKENYA BEEE-2026
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 7

KYAMBOGO UNIVERSITY

BACHELOR OF ENEGINEERING IN ELECTRICAL


ENGINEERING
YEAR THREE: SEMESTER TWO
TEEE 3203 INSTALLATION DESIGN AND CONTRACTING
LECTURE 11: ELECTRIFICATION OF COMMERCIAL
INSTALLATION
Prepared by: Julius Plucker
Email: [email protected]
Mob: 0705666065

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LECTURE 11: ELECTRIFICATION OF COMMERCIAL INSTALLATION
Fundamental considerations for planning of an electrical installation system for commercial
building
Reception and Distribution of Main Supply
• There is always a circuit breaker or a linked switch with fuse on each live conductor of the
supply mains at the point of entry. The main switch is normally easily accessible and shall
be situated near to the termination of service line.

• Branch distribution board is always provided with a fuse or a miniature circuit breaker
(MCB) or both of adequate rating / setting.

• Light and fans may be wired on a common circuit. Such sub-circuit shall not have more
than a total of 10 points of light, fan and 5 A socket outlets. The load of such circuit shall be
restricted to 800 Watts. Power sub-circuit shall be designed according to the load but in no
case shall there be more than two 15 A outlets on each sub-circuit.

• The load on any low voltage sub circuit shall not exceed 3000 Watts. In case of new
installation, all circuits and sub-circuits shall be designed by making a provision of 20%
increase in load due to any future modification.

• The distribution fuse board shall be located as near as possible to the centre of the load.
These shall be fixed in suitable stanchion or wall and shall not be more than 2 m from the
floor level.

• All conductors have to be of copper or aluminium. Conductor for final sub-circuit of fan
and light wiring have a nominal cross sectional area not less than 1 Sq. mm copper and 1.5
Sq. mm aluminium. The cross sectional area for power wiring is not less than 2.5 Sq. mm
copper, 4 Sq. mm aluminium. The minimum cross sectional area of conductors of flexible
cord shall be 0.5 Sq. mm copper.

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Design considerations of electrical installation system for commercial building
i. Load calculation and selection of size of service connection and nature of supply,
ii. Deciding the size of the cables, busbar and bus bar chambers
iii. Next step is finding Bus bar size.
Bus bar materials are:
• Aluminum or Aluminium alloy – working current density, 0.8 A/ Sq.mm
• Copper – working current density, 1.2 A/ Sq.mm

• For the above set up:-


• For neutral bus bar, half the size of phase bus bar size is sufficient.
ie, 40 x 8 mm or 50 x 6 mm Al bus bar may be used for phases and 20 x 8 mm or 25 x 6 mm
for neutral.
Or 31 x 6 mm Cu bus bar may be used for phases and 31 x 3 mm for neutral.
• For small switch boards the distance between the bus supports will be 50 cms.

• If DF is not given, we can assume, DF as 2 for all switch boards.


• The term ampacity is some times used to denote the maximum current rating of the
feeders. If DF is not clearly known, the total ampacity of outlet feeders shall not be
more than two times the ampacity of the incomer feeder.
• The feeder cables need to be selected for the fuse used in the SFU. Eg:- when we want
125A feeder, the fuse and cable corresponding to 125A. But the switch may be 200A,
since above 100A, only if 200A switch is available.

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Mounting arrangements and positioning of switchboards,
distribution boards main switch
Switch boards in general are power distribution centers with SFUs/MCCBs/ACBs/OCBs for
controlling outlets and incomer. Unlike DBs, switch boards are specified by its total current
carrying capacity or incomer current rating. Where as in DBs current rating of the outlet is
the specified rating. Standard switch board ratings are 100 A, 200 A, 400 A, 800 A, 1200 A,
1600 A, 2000 A, 2500 A and 3200 A. If the incomer supply is controlled with an SFU, the
switch board is called switch fuse controlled board and if the incomer is ACB/ OCB
controlled, it is called breaker controlled board.
A switch board having three sections
• Outlet control gears
• Bus chamber
• Incomer control gear
The outlet switch, fuse and cable rating are decided by the load that has to be handled
through that feeder. If the number of loads is more, SSB is required, which is installed almost
at the load centers. In smaller set up SSB may not be necessary and MSB will be the only
switch board.

DB / DFB (Distribution Fuse Board) / FDB (Fuse Distribution Board)


Usually even numbers of ways are used in DBs (2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12). As per IS the maximum
number of ways is limited to 12.

Eg:- 12 way 3 ph DB = 4 x 12 = 48 cable connection including neutral.


Usual current rating of DB s are : 16A, 32A and 63A
63A, 12 way DB s are not common. Since maximum input current=63 X 12 =700A which is
not possible to handle by a DB. Hence 63A DB is 2 ways or 4 ways.
Motor loads up to 20 hp are fed from DB s of various rating.
All DBs have isolator or SFU as incomer switch. But in some case this is avoided if the switch
board supplying to the DB is within 3m from the DB
In a designed system 20% spare outlets are kept for future expansion. i.e in each DB or 2
outlets shall be kept as spares

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Earthing of the electrical installation
Design data on earth electrode
Standard earth electrodes are;
(a) Rod and pipe electrodes,
(b) Strip or conductor electrodes,
(c) Plate electrodes, and
(d) Cable sheaths

SELECTION OF TYPE WIRE, WIRING SYSTEM AND LAYOUT


Selection of rating of incomer isolator/SFU and incomer feeder size :
In any system, all the connected loads will not be put on simultaneously. This reduces the
maximum demand from simply computing by adding all connected loads. The maximum
demand is expressed through a factor called ‘Diversity Factor,
Sum of connected load Diversity Factor (DF) = Simultaneous
Max.demand(MD) >1
From the requirement data, the details of connected load on each DB are known to us. For
spare outlets, an average of other outlets can be assumed.
If the DF is known, we can find the maximum current requirement of the DB to feed all loads
including spares. Instead of furnishing the DF, a usual practice is specifying MD. A commonly
accepted and safe value of DF is 1.5. this value can be assumed for each DB

If motor loads are connected, for selection of isolator / SFU, the starting current has to be
taken in to account rather than continuous current. Eg:- 5 hp - 5Nos and 10 hp - 2Nos
motors are connected to a DB
Total connected load = 45hp MD = 1.545 =30 hp
Corresponding maximum current is 30 x 1.4 = 42 A. This current is the continuous maximum
current
When motors are started we have to account the starting inrush current of large motor in the
down stream. Starting current of DOL starting motor is 2.5 times the rated current and for
assisted starting (star delta), it is 1.5 times the rated current.
So the MD calculation in the above case is as follows:
• One 10 hp (one higher rating) kept aside

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• Now only MD of 20 hp is existing
• Its maximum current = 20 x 1.4 = 28 A
• For one 10 hp alone, maximum current = 2.5 x (10 x 1.4) = 35 A
• Therefore MD of the DB = 28 + 35 = 63 A ie, incoming feeder, isolator/SFU of the DB
can be rated to 63 A

Sequence to be followed to prepare estimate


The feeder to a DB will be fed from an SSB or MSB. This feeder will be protected by the HRC
fuse in the SSB or MSB. It is necessary that the feeder protective fuse should not blow off
before the motor protective fuse in the DB. This is achieved by proper grading between the
fuses. The fuse of SSB/MSB is denoted as major fuse and that of DB is termed as minor fuse.
For achieving grading the ratio between major and minor fuses shall be 2:1 or more.
Feeder cable is selected by considering the 20% excess of the MD of DB. Also major fuse
rating should match with the cable selection.
If the cable length exceeds 75 to 100mtr, the voltage drop condition should be taken in to
account. The voltage drop in the feeder should not be more than 3% in the maximum demand
condition.

Preparation of detailed estimate and costing of commercial installation can commense.

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