Our electrical needs ended up being so complicated. I still can’t really explain them. Words like three phase, single phase, 208 leg, 240 service, power poles, transformers….my head swirls. Zac fought with Entergy for a thousand years, about where on the historic building the big ugly grey boxes would go. He would do all this research, and come up with a feasible plan based on what we know is available in the free world, and then Entergy would give us the list of reasons why they would not approve that. It wouldn’t always follow logical thinking, yet, once you see these guys in action, and how they move high voltage around like it is spaghetti, well, you just have to figure to some degree that they know what they are talking about. That maybe a lifetime of education and electric study would yield a little more knowledge than you could just figure on your own. Then again, that could be total hooey and they just like to pull power trips. Get it?!! Power trips!???!!!!! Aaaaaah, okay. And can you imagine that you are supposed to know every little detail about every appliance, pump, compressor, light bulb, so that every circuit in every wall holds the appropriate load. You have to plan your electrical loads as though every item in the building would be turned on at once.
Right.
It is mind numbing. You know how you pay a licensed insured commercial electrician? But deep down, your like, they aren’t even DOING anything! They just walk around with a drill and drop screws everywhere! And you know how you have to have an engineer approve your plans? And you know how you should have a contractor who interfaces with all these people? But deep down you really believe you could do all the work, because the pros make it look so easy? Will you please take my advice and just let them do their work?!?! We have a very low involvement contractor because we discouraged him from getting too involved thinking we would save money, and besides Zac is a bit of a control freak. AND to be fair, Zac has this all in his head and he is super hard to help. I think I’ve covered that before. Ha. By the time the electricians got done with this insane building, there was so much damn wire everywhere, and boxes, and future plugs, and the main panels inside the building look insane. The spaghetti factory. They bent conduit at very specific angles, they put wire everywhere in the open walls, up in the attic, under the concrete, behind the future bar….
And. Our electrician, Harry Crabtree, wouldn’t even come out and start running the clock till we had hammered down all the research, gotten answers for all electrical load questions, come to a truce with Entergy, and could look into the future and tell him exactly where every refrigerator, light switch, light fixture and plug was going to go. That is called a lighting plan. And it is about the most grueling conversation we have had to have about things we could hardly imagine. I think it is about the most important thing in a restaurant, and something most restaurants do a pretty poor job of. (HINT: lighting plans should not look like your third grade classroom)
How MANY ceiling fans? Lights? Dimmers? How far apart? Where do they start in the room? Where are the booths gonna be? Do they need plugs? How many plugs in the hallway? Do the tables get lights over top? On the wall? What about the stage? The ramp? The bar? After so many mind numbing conversations between Zac and I, we came up with what we will call “the lighting plan”. This is also something people usually outsource, but unfortunately, it often makes your project look like whatever exact trend is happening right now, and is outdated within years. Like a Lowes showroom.
They are also responsible for wiring in all the heat and air units now on the roof. So, no electrician, no A/C. Which at the beginning of June, was starting to really matter.
Electricians. They got the power.
They will come back after drywall etc is done and do the “finish” work. We are halfway there.
I know I’ve used this one before, but here is Entergy hanging connecting our power on our new (ugly) boxes on the front of the building.
By the time we had our lighting plan, we had notes like this all over the walls.
This is the inside box. Look at all those damn cables coming out of the top. Like a race. It is kind of intense! And now it is all invisible!
These guys did such a neat job, every piece of conduit is exactly strait. This might be the first level thing in this building.
The future kitchen. With plugs EXACTLY where the fridges will go.
Luckily, there is no drywall yet.
Entergy’s best solution to our new service.
We did get a new power pole!!
Harry, putting the new boxes on the front of the building, sans sidewalk.
The tricky business of moving long strands of electrical cable from the top of one pole to another. (see the new pole?)
Our electrical service. Grandfathered in, and then left as a memorial for electric past. The top meter was a gift from Entergy, now out of use, it filled what would have been an ugly hole! Thanks guys!