Electro-Spark is an owner-run electrical contractor, based in Table View, that carries out commercial and industrial electrical work across Cape Town. The work covers planned maintenance, office and retail fit-outs, three-phase and machinery installations, common property for body corporates, and backup power. Installations are carried out to SANS 10142-1, and every addition or alteration receives a certificate of compliance.
What should a business expect from its electrical contractor?
Work that is documented as well as done. A common problem on commercial sites is a new circuit installed with no update to the DB board labels and no certificate issued. It surfaces two years later, when an insurer, an auditor or a buyer asks for paperwork that does not exist.
Under the Electrical Installation Regulations, the user or lessor of an installation is responsible for its safety, safe use and maintenance. When an installation is added to or altered, a certificate of compliance is required for at least the addition or alteration. The CoC is therefore part of the job. When we add or change something on your site, you receive the certificate for that work, and the board is labelled to match what is on each breaker.
The business is owner run and the owner supervises the work. The person you discuss a job with is the person responsible for how it is carried out. If we find something on site that changes the scope, you are told before work continues, with photographs.
Which commercial sites do we work on?
Offices, shops, warehouses, workshops, complexes and server rooms. Commercial installations differ more by what the building does than by its size, and a small workshop with one large compressor can be more demanding than a whole floor of offices.
- Offices: sub-DBs, power and data points, lighting, dedicated circuits for server and comms cabinets.
- Retail: shop fit-outs, display and window lighting on timers, till circuits, signage supplies.
- Warehouses and workshops: three-phase supply, machinery and motor circuits, control panels, high-bay lighting.
- Complexes and sectional title schemes: common property lighting, gate motors, pump rooms, CoCs.
- Server rooms: dedicated supplies, surge protection and battery backup so equipment keeps running through an outage.
Where each type of work is covered
Maintenance contracts cover planned visits: DB inspections, emergency lighting and earth leakage testing, lighting replacement, and a record of every visit you can hand to an insurer.
Office and retail fit-outs cover tenant installations from the landlord's supply point to the last floor box, programmed around the shopfitter and signed off with a CoC.
Three-phase and industrial work covers load balancing, motors and machinery, control panels, and upgrading a supply through the City or Eskom.
Property managers and body corporates covers common property, CoCs on unit transfers, gate motors and tenants' call-outs.
Commercial solar and backup power covers inverters, batteries and panels for businesses that cannot afford to stop when the power does.
Supplier registration and quotes
Procurement teams often need a supplier registered on their system before a quote can be accepted. You are welcome to request our company documents before we quote. Please send your vendor requirements at the same time, so the paperwork is settled before the work is scheduled rather than after.
Our quotes set out what is included, what is excluded and what the CoC will cover, so the person approving the spend can see exactly what is being paid for. Where a site visit is needed to price the job accurately, we carry one out first.
Backup power for equipment that cannot go down
Load-shedding showed most businesses which of their loads matter. It is usually a short list: the server and network cabinet, the tills, the alarm and access control, and some lighting. One of our photographs shows lithium battery backup installed beside an office server rack for this purpose.
Placing essential circuits on their own board lets a battery carry what matters for longer, rather than the kettle and the air-conditioning as well. Any system that can connect to the grid, including a hybrid inverter with batteries, must be registered with the City of Cape Town. The details are on our commercial solar page.
Services
- Maintenance contracts Planned DB inspections, emergency lighting and earth leakage tests, lighting replacement and proper records.
- Office & retail fit-outs Tenant installations, sub-DBs, power and data points and lighting, with a CoC on completion.
- Three-phase & industrial Three-phase boards, load balancing, motors, control panels and supply upgrades.
- Property managers & body corporates Common property, CoCs on unit transfers, gate motors, lighting and tenants' call-outs.