What is the effect of applying a demand factor to a non-residential building's loads on the calculated service size?

• A. The calculated service size decreases due to reduced load from demand factor
• B. The calculated service size increases due to reduced load
• C. The calculated service size remains the same
• D. Demand factor does not affect service size

Answer: (A)

Demand factor accounts for simultaneous use, recognizing that not every piece of equipment runs at once in a non-residential building. You start with the total connected load and multiply by the demand factor to get the demand load. Because the factor is less than one, the demand load is smaller than the sum of all connected loads, so the service is sized for that reduced load. As a result, the calculated service size decreases. If you treated the full connected load as the design load, the service would be oversized, which is not economical. That’s why applying the demand factor lowers the required service size.