The Difference Between Residential and Commercial Electrical Wiring

It is vital to understand the difference between electrical wiring for commercial buildings and residential ones. When you need work done on your residential house, you want to make sure you hire an electrician who is experienced with that kind of work. The reason is that the two types of wiring have some substantial differences.

The biggest difference is simply the fact that commercial properties tend to have a lot more wires than personal homes. This is understandable because commercial buildings are usually a lot bigger and have a lot more demanding needs. This is especially true for buildings that rely on heavy pieces of equipment because the wires running through the building need to be capable of charging everything without overloading.

Additionally, commercial electrical wiring occasionally needs to have extra protections in place to protect the electric systems. For example, commercial wiring may need to be coated with nylon or be specially treated to withstand heat and chemicals. This is necessary for buildings where those kinds of materials are going to be prevalent so that nothing gets damaged prematurely.

Lastly, residential homes usually have a single phase electric setup. This means there is a standard set of three wires where one is the negative, one is the positive and one is the neutral. For commercial buildings, a three phase system is generally used. This means there will be two smaller legs of wires that each run 120 volts. There will also be a slightly wider wire that is capable of running 208 volts.

As you can see, each type of building has different needs, and you want to hire a professional electrical contractor who can work on your particular building. Some contractors are capable of working on both, but when you meet with an electrician for the first consultation, you always want to ask if he or she has worked on your type of building in the past.