Living Report · Electrical Planning Report

A 174-suite tower that draws just 1.1 kW per suite at its busiest hour.

Park Towers is heated by natural gas — the space heating, the hot water, the pool, even the laundry dryers. The electrical service carries lighting, elevators, pumps and the suites, and about 60 percent of it sits unused at the year's peak. That room supports EV charging at every unit; converting the gas systems is where planning gets interesting.

See the capacity → Explore what fits →

Spare at the main service

0%

of the 1400 A main service, unused at the year's busiest hour

0

Residential suites

0

Storeys · concrete high-rise

0 A

Main service · 120/208 V

0

Residential parking stalls

0 kW

Peak demand per suite

01 · Capacity, measured

How much electrical room is left.

Capacity is assessed at the strata's own main fuse using a full year of BC Hydro data — the building's genuine busiest hour, plus the 25% safety factor Technical Safety BC requires.

Main service — 1400 A fused switch

0kW spare

60.9% free Substantial spare

197.1 kW design peak of 504.4 kW capacity · 1400 A × 208 V × √3

The switchgear assembly is nameplate-rated 1600 A; the main switch carries 1400 A fuses per the original drawings, and the lower figure is used throughout — the conservative reading.

Whole-building peak · bulk metered

0kW design peak

June 24, 2026 · 7 PM

157.656 kWh busiest hour × 1.25 safety factor

Park Towers is bulk metered on a single BC Hydro account — the suites and common areas together on one meter. The hours around the peak sit close to it, so the figure is representative, not an isolated spike.

⚡

Why so low for a building this size? Because most of the building's energy load is supplied by natural gas. Space heating, domestic hot water, the pool, corridor make-up air and the laundry dryers are all gas fired, so the electrical service carries lighting, elevators, pumps, laundry washers and the suites only. This matters for planning: the spare capacity is large because the electrical service is doing comparatively little work today — and converting any of the central gas systems to electric would consume a substantial part of that spare.

02 · Where the power flows

From the street to your suite, in one diagram.

Tap any box to see what it is, what it powers, and where the spare capacity sits.

Selected

03 · What draws power today

The heavy systems run on gas — so the meter stays quiet.

Three gas boilers heat the suites, the hot water and the pool; a gas unit heats the corridor air; even the laundry dryers are gas. Here is what the electrical service actually carries.

A note on the numbers: these are the loads identified at the site visit and from the original drawings — not a breakdown of the 197.1 kW measured peak. There is no electric space heating, no air conditioning, and no existing EV charging anywhere on the property.

04 · The future, scenario by scenario

What could go electric — and does it fit?

Select a scenario to see the report's estimated load, its verdict, and what it does to the spare capacity. The scenarios are modelled separately, as the Regulation requires — they compete for the same spare, and the strata decides the order.

In use today Added load Spare Over capacity

▮

The one-sentence version

The spare capacity is sufficient to make one stall per residential unit EV Ready under a managed charging system, and it is sufficient to convert the central gas domestic hot water to electric — though not to do both. The practical next step is to adopt the EV Ready Plan and sequence any gas conversion behind it.

05 · Equipment health

Original to 1974 — and in good condition.

The main switchgear, suite distribution panels, house panels and disconnects are original to the building and in good condition, with ample spare for the loads assessed. No condition assessment or capacity upgrade is required at this time — routine annual visual inspection by a licensed electrical contractor is sufficient.

06 · Our recommendations

What to do, in plain order.

07 · Methodology & the fine print