When restaurant owners decide to have electrical rewiring work done, these are the two most common conundrums they end up having to solve.

What to do with all of their fridge and freezer food

When the electrician hired by the restaurant owner gets started, they will have to switch off the old electrical system and begin pulling out all of the deteriorated wiring so that they can then replace it with new wiring. This is a long process (especially in a large restaurant) and throughout it, the owner will be unable to use the restaurant's mains electricity. This could be a problem as many restaurant owners keep a large supply of perishable food on their premises that has to be either frozen or refrigerated. As such, if a restaurant owner needs to have this electrical work done and they don't want their hundreds of kilos of food to end up spoiled, they must come up with a way to keep it fresh whilst their dining establishment is being rewired.

There are really only two options available to them. The first is to contact another restaurant owner with whom they are friendly and ask them if they could store their items in their commercial freezers and fridges for a few days. This would, however, necessitate the rental of a refrigerated vehicle to take all of the perishables to the other premises (unless the other restaurant is extremely close by), to prevent these items from melting or rotting during the journey.

The second option that a person could go for is to rent a large generator that could be used to supply their own fridges and freezers at the restaurant with power whilst the mains electricity is unavailable. If a restaurant owner decides to do this, they should make sure that the edges of their fridge and freezer doors are sealed with tape and are not opened whilst their premises are being rewired. If they don't do this, all of the dust that the rewiring work will create may end up settling on and ruining the food.

Whether or not they should change the location of their kitchen's plug sockets

The other conundrum that restaurant owners often have to deal with in this situation is deciding whether or not they need to change the location of the plug sockets in their' kitchen. This quite an important decision as the position of sockets in a commercial kitchen can affect how efficient, safe and functional it is. If the kitchen was designed many years ago when the restaurant was smaller and far less busy, then the plug sockets might need to be relocated to make it easier for kitchen staff to safely move around in this setting.

For example, if there is a plug socket on the wall opposite a food prep worktop, the cables from the electric whisks and blenders that are plugged into this socket by staff members could stretch across the walkway between the wall and the worktop, which could then result in other kitchen staff having to duck under these cables in order to get past them. In this instance, having the socket moved over to the wall that is directly adjacent to the worktop would stop this from happening.

This simple change, done as part of the electrician's rewiring work, could reduce the risk of staff getting tripped up by cables when they're in this area or accidentally pulling cooking gadgets out of the sockets whilst their walking past them.

To learn more about electrical rewiring and how to plan for it, contact an electrician.