Living Report · Electrical Planning Report
At its busiest hour of the year, this building uses less than a third of its electrical service.
Landmark Arms is heated by natural gas, and so is its hot water — so the electrical service does very little work today: about 1.2 kW per suite at peak. That leaves real room for EV charging and an electric hot water conversion together, with a little to spare. This page carries both of your documents: the Electrical Planning Report, and the EV Ready Plan that turns its charging scenario into a concrete design.
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.
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.
03 · What draws power today
Heat and hot water are gas — the range is the big electric load.
Two gas boilers heat the suites through hydronic baseboards, and a third gas boiler heats the domestic hot water. Neither appears on the electrical service. Here is what does.
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 — and they draw on the same spare.
The spare supports EV charging through an energy management system, together with converting the gas hot water to electric, with a little capacity still in reserve. It does not support fitting heat pumps in all 26 suites — that would be a larger project involving a new BC Hydro service and likely a renovation of the main electrical room.
05 · Equipment health
Original to 1974, in good condition — with two practical notes.
The main fused switch, meter centre, house panel and suite panels are in good condition, and the service has ample spare for the loads assessed. No upgrades or modifications to increase capacity are required or recommended. The notes worth knowing: the electrical room is tight, and some suites still carry the original fuse panels.
06 · Our recommendations
What to do, in plain order.
Part two · EV Ready Plan · BC Hydro CS-4042
Every stall, EV Ready — with no service upgrade.
"EV Ready" does not mean chargers get installed. It means the infrastructure is in place so every resident can easily add a charger when they're ready — an energized, networked, managed circuit at every residential stall from day one. This plan is built to BC Hydro's program standard, which is also what makes the building eligible for BC Hydro's EV rebates.
07 · The recommended solution
A new EV panel, its own meter, and seven smart circuits.
Chargers are fed from a new 250 A EV panel on a new BC Hydro meter — so EV electricity never touches the strata's common-area account, and the existing house capacity is untouched. Because the electrical room is tight, the panel goes in the adjacent mechanical room.
New 250 A EV panel
Seven managed circuits
The charger
Management & billing
Parkade network
Chargers arrive with the cars
08 · How the sharing works
One breaker, four stalls — and nobody waits for a charge.
One 40 A breaker feeds a circuit shared between four stalls. The energy management system dynamically allocates power to whichever chargers are operating — when a car unplugs, current is instantly reallocated to the rest. Tap a scenario:
09 · Cost & rebates
What it costs, and what BC Hydro pays back.
The infrastructure is the strata's one-time build. Chargers are a separate per-stall cost, paid as owners acquire electric vehicles. Pricing is before tax and valid for 30 days from the plan date; final pricing is confirmed by the installing contractor at detailed design.
10 · Alternatives considered
Two other designs were on the table.
The recommended 4:1 build delivers full BC Hydro charging performance at the lowest installed cost while keeping spare capacity for future growth. Here is what else was considered, and why.
One or two shared chargers, ~$10,000
Fed from the four spare positions on the existing house panel, at the visitor stall or the parkade wall — no new panel, no new meter, no load management, and the house capacity easily carries it (two chargers draw 15.4 kW against 33.7 kW of house spare). Why not selected: it doesn't make the property EV Ready or access the infrastructure rebate on the same basis, mixes EV use into the strata's common meter, and uses every spare position on the house panel. It remains a reasonable near-term step if council wants charging available quickly without committing to the full build.
Dedicated 1:1 circuits, no sharing
A dedicated 40 A circuit to every stall, full 7.68 kW to every vehicle at all times. Why not selected: it needs 26 breakers instead of seven, far more conductor and conduit, and its 199.7 kW unmanaged load is more than three times the 65.4 kW of measured spare — forcing a service upgrade. The 4:1 solution already meets BC Hydro's charging performance requirement in full, so the extra cost buys no real benefit at typical residential charging patterns.
This is a plan, not a permit package. Detailed design and permit drawings follow under a separate engagement once the strata accepts the plan (the engineering design fee above covers that work). Common-property charging infrastructure needs a strata council resolution — and where the work affects common property in a way that requires owner approval, a 3/4 vote — and the strata notifies BC Hydro of the load addition before energizing.
11 · Methodology & the fine print