Will Your Building Support Your Equipment? A Restaurant Utilities Capacity Guide

The equipment was fine. The building was not — a signed lease, a deposit on a used cooking line, and an electrician in front of a 100-amp panel explaining that the space cannot run half of it.

Every equipment guide tells you what a unit requires. This one tells you what the address can supply, and how to find out before you commit.

Start With a Load List, Not a Wish List

You evaluate a space against a table, not a vague plan, with one row per powered or plumbed item:

Those numbers come from the data plate, the metal tag on the unit, not from listing copy. A listing without voltage, phase, amperage, and BTU input is one you cannot budget against, so ask for a data plate photo before you get attached to a price. Every section below checks against this table, which by the end is your purchasing filter.

Gas: Can the Building Deliver the BTUs?

Add up your connected load

Sum the BTU/h input of every gas appliance. The four above total 639,000 BTU/h, an ordinary full-service line at a scale that commonly runs 400,000 to 700,000. Treat the total as a budget: every burner spends against a ceiling the building already has, so browse ranges and ovens with a BTU column.

Convert to CFH and check the meter

Gas meters are rated in cubic feet per hour, so convert:

CFH = total BTU/h ÷ heating value of the gas

Natural gas runs about 1,000 BTU per cubic foot, so a 639,000 BTU/h kitchen needs roughly 640 CFH. (Propane is far denser, around 2,516 BTU per cubic foot of vapor, so its CFH figures look much smaller for the same heat.)

The meter's capacity is printed on its faceplate. Photograph it, then call the gas utility with the address: what meter is set there, and what can they serve? Utilities size meters against connected load, and swapping one runs on their schedule.

The line from the meter to the kitchen

Capacity at the meter means nothing if the pipe from it is undersized. Pipe capacity depends on diameter, developed length to the farthest appliance, inlet pressure, and allowable pressure drop. Sizing comes off code tables (IFGC Table 402.4 or NFPA 54) using the longest-length method, under your adopted fuel gas code. Learn what determines the answer; the sizing is a licensed gas fitter's job. A former retail or office space frequently has a residential-scale line, and re-piping is real construction with permits.

The sneakier failure: a line can have enough capacity on paper and still drop too much pressure when everything fires at once — burners that will not hold flame on the first Friday rush. Ask the gas fitter to check pressure drop at full connected load, not just capacity.

Natural gas or propane — a building question

If the address has no gas main, "gas" means propane tanks: a setback-compliant location, landlord permission, a fill schedule, a delivery route. Settle that before you sign. Once you know the fuel, the equipment side takes over: orifices and regulators differ between natural gas and LP, and a mismatch is dangerous, as covered in verifying gas type and BTU on the range itself. It is the first filter on every gas listing.

Trucks and shared kitchens: a truck's propane and generator setup is its own problem set — see the food truck power and propane guide. Renting a commissary or shared-kitchen slot makes this a question for its operator: what capacity comes with my station, and who else draws on it during my prep? Sign for your own space and this guide is yours.

Electrical: Service Size, Voltage, and Phase

Read the panel before you believe anyone

Three facts decide most of it: the main breaker rating in amps, the service voltage, and whether the service is single or three phase. All three are readable without touching anything: the breaker is labeled and the panel directory lists circuits. Photograph both legibly, and do not open panels or test anything; you are gathering evidence for an electrician.

208V is not 240V

The most useful arithmetic on this page. Power in a resistive load scales with the square of the voltage:

(208 ÷ 240)² ≈ 0.75

About 25% less output: a 4,500W element delivers roughly 3,380W at 208V. It appears to work — it heats, nothing trips — but heats slowly and never recovers between rushes, and the used unit gets blamed for a mismatch that was in the building.

Most commercial buildings on three-phase service supply 120/208V; 240V single phase is the residentially derived case. Much commercial gear is dual-rated "208/240V" and much is not, so match data plate voltage to the building.

Single phase vs three phase

Three-phase equipment cannot run on single-phase service: no adapter, no workaround short of a phase converter or a service change. If the building is single phase, filter three-phase listings out at the search stage. The math:

• Single phase: A = W ÷ V
• Three phase: A = W ÷ (V × 1.732)

Run it backwards: 100A at 208V three phase is 208 × 1.732 × 100 ≈ 36 kVA, before derating, HVAC, or lighting.

Sizing the service against the load

A competent electrician does not simply add up nameplates. NEC Table 220.56 permits demand factors on thermostatically controlled or intermittently used commercial kitchen equipment, since not everything runs flat out at once: 100% at one or two units, falling to 65% at six or more. There is a floor: the calculated load must be at least the sum of the two largest kitchen equipment loads. Demand factors do not apply to space heating, ventilation, or A/C, which count in full.

Your job is not to run it but to recognize a real one when an electrician hands it to you under your adopted code edition, and to insist on headroom. Ask for the calculated load and the service rating as two numbers, then ask what the gap is — the combi oven you add in year two comes out of it. Loads that never turn off count too: refrigeration compressors and ice machines run around the clock.

If you need an upgrade

Panel and feeder work inside the building is a contractor, a permit, and an inspection — expensive but schedulable. Anything touching the service drop, meter, or transformer belongs to the utility, whose calendar is not yours. Most restaurant upgrades will not require the utility to touch its own equipment, but if yours does, distribution transformer lead times have run roughly 30 to 50 weeks in 2026 against 8 to 12 weeks pre-2020. Ask for a service availability letter early. This is the item most likely to detonate an opening date.

Water, Hot Water, and Drainage

Cold supply. The service line and meter have to carry total fixture demand — three-compartment sink, hand sinks, mop sink, prep sinks, ice machine, dish machine, combi oven, beverage lines.

Hot water is where buildings actually fail. A high-temperature sanitizing dish machine needs a final rinse hot enough to sanitize. The Food Code's model language puts that at 180°F at the manifold for most machines, and 165°F for single-temperature stationary-rack units, which in practice means a booster heater on top of a building supply arriving around 120°F. Your machine's data plate and your health department set the number that applies to you. These machines move volume. A rack conveyor can consume well over 150 gallons per hour, and a heater sized for the boutique that was here before will not carry a kitchen.

This is where building capacity should change an equipment decision. A low-temperature, chemical-sanitizing dish machine runs on ordinary hot water and skips the booster. It costs more per year in chemicals, but when hot water is the binding constraint it is often the right call — price both through dish machines and sinks.

Drainage. Floor sinks and drains have to land where the plan requires, and equipment that must air-gap needs indirect waste. If the drains are not where your line will be, you are cutting concrete — an argument for settling your kitchen layout against existing drains rather than a blank rectangle.

Grease: Interceptors and the Sewer Authority

The item first-time operators most often discover during plan review — the worst possible time.

Two families. Hydromechanical units sit indoors near the sinks, sized by flow rate in gallons per minute. Gravity interceptors are buried outside, sized in gallons, commonly 500 to 1,500 or more for a full-service kitchen, with many jurisdictions setting a 500- or 750-gallon minimum. Sizing typically works from grease-bearing drainage fixture units, a flow rate, and a retention time — all set locally, so carry none of these numbers into a budget.

The authority is not your health department. It is the local sewer or wastewater utility's FOG (fats, oils, and grease) program — sometimes a city department, sometimes a regional district. Call them with the address for their sizing formula, minimum size, indoor-versus-outdoor rules, and pump-out interval. They commonly require pumping by a licensed hauler once grease reaches about 25% of capacity, and many pair that trigger with a fixed backstop interval: 90 days is a common default, though ordinances run from monthly to annually. Manifests stay on site. It is a recurring cost, not a one-time install, and the size itself gets locked in during plumbing plan review, so discovering it late is construction rather than paperwork.

The site questions are short: is there an interceptor here, what size, and where? If not, is there room to install one? A space with no yard, no accessible slab, and no interceptor can be an unbuildable restaurant.

Ventilation and Make-Up Air — the Building Half Only

Hood selection lives in the hood and ventilation guide and, with fire suppression budgets, in the full restaurant equipment checklist. The building half is narrower:

• Is there a viable exhaust route to the roof or an exterior wall, and what does it pass through?
• Is there roof access, and structural capacity for an exhaust fan and a make-up air unit?
• Who owns the roof penetration in the lease, and who warranties it?
• What do the exhaust fan and MUA add to the load calculation you just ran? Ventilation does not get demand-factored.

Fire and mechanical codes are local, and the fire marshal is a separate approval from the building department — ask both. Once route and roof are settled, ventilation hoods are a shopping problem.

How to Check All of This Before You Sign

The walkthrough: photograph these

Six photographs and an hour can save a lease: the main electrical panel (breaker label and directory, both readable), the gas meter faceplate with its CFH rating, the water meter, the water heater data plate, any grease interceptor lid, and the exhaust route.

The calls to make

With the street address in hand, before the lease:

• Gas utility. "I'm evaluating this address for a restaurant with about 640 CFH of connected load. What meter is set there, and what can you serve?"
• Electric utility. "What is the service size and voltage here, is three phase available, and what is your timeline for an upgrade?"
• Sewer authority. "I'm opening a food service establishment here. What does your FOG program require, and can you send me your sizing worksheet?"
• Building department. "What permits and plan reviews does a change of use to food service trigger?" Ask separately about water, sewer, and impact fees — some jurisdictions charge substantial one-time fees.
• Health department. "Can you send me your plan review packet for a new food establishment?"

Plan review is where the truth comes out

The FDA Food Code's model language requires plans and specifications be submitted to the regulatory authority and approved before construction or conversion of a food establishment. Every jurisdiction adopts its own version, with its own packet and timeline. Get your health department's packet before you sign: it is a written list of what the space must have, and working through it is covered in working with your health department and the permits and licenses checklist.

Get it into the lease

Negotiate a due-diligence period long enough to make those calls and get a contractor through the space. Make the lease contingent on permits and on utility capacity being adequate, or on the landlord delivering the upgrade, with scope and deadline named. Then name who pays for what: gas re-pipe, service upgrade, grease interceptor, roof penetration, water heater. Who "normally" pays is not a thing; it is set by your lease and the utility's tariff. Have an attorney draft it — this is what to ask for, not legal advice.

Second-generation space vs. shell

A former restaurant usually arrives with gas capacity, three-phase service, a hood, and an interceptor, and commands meaningfully higher rent for exactly that reason — frequently worth every dollar. But inherited infrastructure was sized for the previous tenant's menu, and a pizza place's gas service will not necessarily carry your fry station. Run the same load list against it that you would against a shell. It is a head start, not a guarantee. Either way, that work belongs in your startup cost estimate as its own line.

Then Buy to the Building

Once the ceilings are known, they become purchase filters: fuel type and a BTU budget for the cooking line, voltage and phase for everything electric, hot water capacity for warewashing, drain locations for anything needing indirect waste.

Buying used gets dramatically safer once you shop to a spec sheet instead of a wish list, because voltage, phase, and BTU input are filterable before you ever call a seller. The nightmare used-equipment story is almost never a bad unit; it is a good unit that could not be installed. With a load list in hand, what a used range should cost and where to find one tells you in seconds whether a listing is a candidate.

The building sets the spec. Shop the spec.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many amps does a commercial kitchen need?

There is no single answer, and anyone who gives you one is guessing. A gas-heavy line draws far less than an all-electric kitchen with a combi oven and a high-temp dish machine. Build a load list from each unit's data plate, have an electrician calculate the load under your adopted code, and ask for spare capacity.

Can I run 240V restaurant equipment on 208V power?

Usually it will physically operate, which is what makes it a trap. Power in a resistive load falls with the square of the voltage ratio, so (208 ÷ 240)² ≈ 0.75, about 25% less output, heating slowly and never recovering between rushes. Much commercial gear is dual-rated "208/240V," but check every data plate against the building's actual voltage first.

What size gas line does a restaurant need?

That comes off a code sizing table, not a blog post: it depends on diameter, developed length to your farthest appliance, inlet pressure, and allowable pressure drop, worked through the longest-length method in your adopted IFGC or NFPA 54 edition. Total your appliances' BTU/h, divide by about 1,000 for the CFH you need, and hand that to a licensed gas fitter with the meter's rating.

Do I need a grease trap for my restaurant?

Almost certainly, but the requirement, type, size, and location are set by your local sewer or wastewater authority's FOG program — not the health department, and not any national standard. Call them with the address for their sizing worksheet and minimum size, then ask whether one already exists at the space and, if not, whether there is room for one. Budget for ongoing pumping by a licensed hauler.

How do I know if a building has three-phase power?

Look at the main electrical panel and the utility meter. Three-phase service typically shows a three-pole main breaker and a panel labeled 120/208V; single-phase is usually 120/240V with a two-pole main. Photograph the breaker label and directory and let an electrician confirm it. If your list includes three-phase units and the building is single phase, there is no adapter — only a phase converter or a utility service upgrade.

What should I check before signing a restaurant lease?

On the utilities side: the gas meter's CFH rating against your equipment's total BTU/h, the electrical service size and available phases at the panel, hot water capacity for your dish method, and whether a grease interceptor already exists or can physically be installed. Photograph the meter, the panel directory, and the water heater, and get the landlord's answers in writing about who pays for a service upgrade — that clause is worth more than the rent concession most tenants negotiate for instead.