Restaurant patios in Burlington and Hamilton are no longer the seasonal sideline they were a decade ago. They are year-round revenue centres with overhead heaters, ceiling fans, weatherproof TVs, ambient string lighting, and the occasional fire table. The electrical scope has grown to match. The Authority Having Jurisdiction - the ESA on the electrical side and the municipal building department on the structural and occupancy side - is reviewing patio additions more carefully than they used to, and the utility (Burlington Hydro in Burlington, Alectra in Hamilton) has to be coordinated with separately on any service-side work. Here is what a properly built restaurant patio install looks like in 2026.
What a real patio install needs, by load category
Walking the load list on a typical 30-seat covered patio at a Burlington restaurant:
- Overhead patio heaters. Electric infrared heaters draw 1,500 to 6,000 watts each. A typical 30-seat patio runs 4 to 6 heaters. At 240V, that is 25A to 75A of heater load alone.
- Ceiling fans. 100 to 200 watts each, several units, all on a switched circuit.
- Permanent string lighting. Commercial-grade LED café strings, 200 to 600 watts total depending on patio size.
- Weatherproof outdoor TVs. 100 to 300 watts each.
- Speakers and AV. 50 to 300 watts depending on amplifier.
- Receptacles for POS, espresso, blender stations. 15A or 20A circuits each, several of them.
- Fire-table electrical. Igniter only (the main fuel is gas), but a dedicated GFCI receptacle for the igniter wiring.
- Bug fans, misters, awning motors. Smaller dedicated circuits.
Total connected load on a fully built-out patio routinely lands at 100A to 200A on its own - which is most of a residential service worth of equipment, just for the patio.
The dedicated patio panel - almost always the right answer
Pulling individual branch circuits from the main building panel to the patio works for small additions but falls apart at scale. The right architecture for any patio with significant load is a dedicated subpanel inside or beside the patio area. Reasons:
- One feeder run from the main panel rather than ten branch circuit runs - cleaner, faster, and easier to inspect
- Local disconnect for service and lock-out, important for a space that crews work in regularly
- Future expansion stays inside the patio panel rather than requiring repeated trips back to the main
- Clear separation between front-of-house and back-of-house electrical for cost-control reporting
- Surge protection scoped to the patio
Typical patio subpanel sizing: 100A to 200A feeder from the main, fed by a 4-wire branch circuit appropriately sized. Panel inside a weatherproof enclosure if mounted in the patio area, or inside the building wall behind a patio if more practical.
Heater amperage - the most common mistake
The math on patio heaters trips up a lot of restaurant owners and a few electricians. A commercial electric patio heater is a continuous load - it runs continuously through the dinner service. OESC continuous load math requires the breaker to be sized at 125% of the running current.
A 5,000-watt 240V heater draws 20.8A running, which sizes the breaker at 26A. Round up to a 30A breaker. Six of them is 180A of breaker capacity (six 30A breakers) - but the diversified concurrent load is lower because the heaters cycle on their thermostats. We use the manufacturer's listed simultaneous-on load and OESC's commercial demand factors to size the feeder.
The wrong way is to assume "these are heaters, derate them like a residential range." They are not, and they don't.
The AHJ conversation in Burlington and Hamilton
Patio additions in Burlington and Hamilton require both an ESA permit (we pull it as the LEC) and a building permit from the municipality (the restaurant owner or general contractor pulls it). The two permits live in different paperwork tracks and the municipal building department often wants to see the electrical scope on the building permit drawings.
What the AHJ checks at the patio level:
- Total demand load against the available service capacity at the building
- Egress lighting if the patio is part of the assembly occupancy
- Emergency lighting on circuits separate from general lighting
- Disconnect locations for all permanently installed equipment
- Fire-alarm or sprinkler integration where the building has them
If the restaurant is in a tenanted commercial building, the landlord's building manager is the third party who needs to sign off. We deal with all three regularly across the Burlington and Hamilton commercial market.
String lighting - more than just plugging it in
Commercial permanent string lighting on a restaurant patio is not the same product as the consumer café-string lights from a hardware store. The right product is CSA-listed for permanent outdoor commercial use, runs on a dedicated 15A or 20A circuit, and is installed with mechanical strain relief at every termination. The string is not load-bearing - a separate stainless steel catenary cable carries the weight, and the lighting string clips to it.
The wrong product is the consumer string lights stapled to the pergola through the wire jacket. Failure mode: the wire jacket degrades at the staple, conductor exposed, GFCI nuisance trips for the first season then a fire risk in the second.
Outdoor TV and AV - the wiring path
A weatherproof outdoor TV needs three things from the electrical side:
- A WR receptacle within reach of the mounting location, with an in-use cover, on a dedicated 15A circuit (TVs and AV equipment are sensitive to shared circuits with motor loads)
- Conduit or chase for the HDMI / audio / network cabling from the AV cabinet to the TV location
- Bonding of any metal mounting hardware on a covered patio
The AV cabinet itself - typically inside the building - holds the receiver, the source equipment, and any matrix switching. Outside-rated wiring runs from cabinet to TV through the wall in conduit.
Fire table specifics
A commercial gas fire table needs only an igniter circuit electrically - the BTUs come from natural gas or propane. The igniter is a small low-voltage circuit fed from a transformer in a WR enclosure, with a 15A receptacle nearby for service. The gas side is a separate scope handled by the gas fitter, but we coordinate the conduit and box locations so the install sequences correctly.
Off-hours installation
Most patio electrical work is scheduled during closed hours. We do evening, overnight, or early-morning installs depending on the restaurant's hours. A typical patio buildout is 3 to 7 working days for the electrical scope, sequenced with the GC's framing and finishing trades, with rough-in inspection and final inspection scheduled around the restaurant's calendar.
When to call us
If you are building a new patio, expanding an existing one, or retrofitting permanent heaters on a patio that was originally seasonal-only, the electrical scope is a significant piece of the budget and lead time. We do commercial electrical across Burlington, Hamilton, Oakville, Waterdown, Ancaster, Dundas, and Stoney Creek - patio buildouts, tenant fit-outs, and service upgrades for restaurant work. Request a quote with a sketch of the patio layout and we will scope the electrical with you.