ElecAS
AI Mode: Australian Electrical Calculations in Plain English
AI Mode is the plain-English front door to the ElecAS calculator suite. Describe an electrical job the way you would say it out loud (a 63 A three-phase submain, 45 m, XLPE copper in conduit in air), and ElecAS picks the right calculator, fills its inputs and runs it. The language model reads your sentence and chooses an engine; it never produces the number. Every figure comes from the same calculation module and the same checked-in AS/NZS reference tables the calculator page uses, so a cable size from AI Mode and the same job typed into the Cable Selection form return the same answer. AI Mode reaches 16 calculation engines: cable selection and sizing to AS/NZS 3008.1.1, maximum demand by Tables C1, C2 and C3 of AS/NZS 3000 Appendix C, voltage drop, voltage rise to AS/NZS 4777.1, earthing conductor size, current-carrying-capacity derating, conduit sizing, cable tray sizing, power factor correction, generator sizing, UPS and battery sizing to IEEE 485, arc flash incident energy to IEEE 1584-2018, LED inrush and solar and battery payback. Required parameters that are missing are asked for rather than invented; every value that actually reached the engine is printed on the result card with anything defaulted tagged as assumed; every result exports the same branded PDF the calculator exports; and one tap opens the whole job in the full calculator with every field populated so a reviewer can re-trace it by hand. AI Mode is included with the ElecAS Pro and AI Pro plans.
Key facts
- AI Mode lets you describe an electrical job in plain English and returns the ElecAS calculator's own result, compliance checks and branded PDF.
- The language model never produces the number. It only chooses which of 16 calculation engines to run and maps your description onto that engine's inputs.
- Every figure comes from the same calculation module and the same checked-in AS/NZS reference tables as the matching calculator page, so both routes return the same answer.
- Results are deterministic: the same inputs return the same result and the same PDF every time, unlike a general AI assistant where rewording the question can change the answer.
- Missing required parameters are asked for rather than invented, and every input that reached the engine is printed on the result card with anything defaulted tagged as assumed.
- AI Mode covers cable selection, maximum demand (Tables C1, C2 and C3), voltage drop, voltage rise, earthing, derating, conduit and cable tray sizing, power factor correction, generator sizing, UPS and battery sizing, arc flash, LED inrush and solar and battery payback.
- Every free ElecAS account includes a one-off 50,000-token AI Mode trial with no time limit on spending it; the Pro and AI Pro plans carry much larger monthly allowances, and every ElecAS calculator itself remains free to use.
Who this page is for
Australian and New Zealand electrical engineers, designers, estimators, contractors and electricians who want a cable size, maximum demand, voltage drop, voltage rise, earthing, derating, conduit, tray, power factor, generator, UPS, arc flash or inrush result without opening the right form and filling every field first.
Relevant standards
- AS/NZS 3000:2018 (Wiring Rules: maximum demand Appendix C Tables C1, C2 and C3; earthing conductor sizing)
- AS/NZS 3008.1.1:2025 (cable selection, current-carrying capacity, voltage drop, derating)
- AS/NZS 4777.1:2016 (inverter voltage rise)
- IEEE 1584-2018 (arc flash incident energy)
- IEEE 485 / 1184 / 1189 (UPS and battery sizing)
- AS ISO 8528.1 and AS/NZS 3010 (generator sizing)
- AS/NZS 60898.1 (LED inrush and circuit-breaker withstand)
What this tool helps with
- Describe the job in plain English, in any order, with no form to find and no field order to follow: AI Mode maps your words onto the right calculator.
- The model never does the maths: it selects one of 16 engines and fills its parameters, and the number comes from the production calculation module and the checked-in AS/NZS tables.
- The same answer as the calculator page: AI Mode imports the same engines and the same standard reference data, so both routes to a result agree.
- Missing required parameters are asked for, not invented; the validator rejects an incomplete job before any engine runs.
- Every input that reached the engine is listed on the result card, with anything defaulted tagged as assumed, so a wrong reading of your description is visible next to the answer.
- Every result exports the same branded PDF report the calculator exports: inputs, intermediate values, governing check and final figure.
- One tap opens the job in the full calculator with every field populated, so the result can be reviewed and re-traced by hand.
- Quoting a clause number, table number or numeric limit from memory is prohibited: standards references only appear where the engine itself produced them.
- Covers cable selection, maximum demand C1/C2/C3, voltage drop, voltage rise, earthing, derating, conduit, cable tray, power factor correction, generator sizing, UPS and battery sizing, arc flash, LED inrush and solar and battery payback.
- Requests outside the engine catalogue are declined and pointed at the right page, rather than answered from the model's memory.
How to run an electrical calculation in ElecAS AI Mode
- Describe the job in plain English: Type the job the way you would say it out loud, in whatever order it comes out: for example a 63 A three-phase submain, 45 m, XLPE copper in conduit in air. There is no form to find first and no field order to follow.
- The model picks an engine and fills its parameters: The assistant chooses one of the 16 ElecAS calculation engines and maps your words onto that engine's inputs. That is the whole extent of its involvement in the result. If a required parameter is genuinely missing it asks you for it; it is not permitted to invent one.
- Your browser runs the real calculator: The parameters are validated against a strict schema, then the same calculation module the calculator page uses loads the same AS/NZS reference tables and returns the result. This is the only path in AI Mode from a request to a number.
- Check the inputs, then take the answer or the PDF: The result card shows the figure, every compliance check and every input that reached the engine, with anything defaulted tagged as assumed. Export the same branded PDF the calculator exports, or open the job in the full calculator with every field populated to review it by hand.
AI Mode: describe an electrical job, get the calculator's answer
What AI Mode is
AI Mode is a natural-language interface to the ElecAS electrical design calculators for Australia and New Zealand. Instead of finding the right calculator, reading its field labels and filling every input in the order the form expects, you describe the job in a sentence and ElecAS runs it. It is aimed at the moment in a working day when you know exactly what you need and do not want to navigate to get it: sizing a submain on site, checking a voltage drop before a client call, or running a maximum demand for a unit block while the numbers are still in your head.
It is not a chatbot that answers electrical questions from what a language model has read. The distinction matters, because an electrical figure that goes on a drawing you sign is not a language problem. AI Mode is built so that the model reads your sentence and picks a tool, and the tool (the production calculation engine) produces the number.
The engines AI Mode can reach
AI Mode reaches 16 calculation engines, each of which is the production calculator rather than a summary of it. They are: cable selection and sizing to AS/NZS 3008.1.1, maximum demand by AS/NZS 3000 Appendix C Table C1 (domestic), Table C2 (non-domestic) and Table C3 (energy method), voltage drop, voltage rise to AS/NZS 4777.1, earthing conductor size, current-carrying-capacity derating, conduit sizing, cable tray sizing, power factor correction, generator sizing, UPS and battery sizing to IEEE 485 / 1184 / 1189, arc flash incident energy to IEEE 1584-2018, LED inrush, and solar and battery payback.
Anything outside that catalogue is declined and, where a page exists, you are pointed at it. The drawing-driven and model-driven tools in the suite (EleCAD, Lighting Design, Spatial Design, time-current curves and Switchboard Sizing) are deliberately excluded, because a floor plan, a diagram or a nested building model does not survive being flattened into a sentence, and a half-specified switchboard is worse than a link to the page.
Why the answer matches the calculator
Nothing is re-implemented for AI Mode. It imports the same calculation modules and the same checked-in standard reference tables as the calculator pages, so a cable size produced in AI Mode and the same job typed into the Cable Selection form return the same answer. That also means AI Mode inherits the whole verification regime behind the suite: automated tests run against the standards' own worked examples on every build, and every output carries a version stamp you can tie a result back to.
It also means the result is deterministic. The same inputs return the same figure and the same PDF, every time. With a general assistant, rewording the question or opening a fresh session can change the answer, because the answer was generated rather than calculated.
What you get back
A result card shows the headline figure, every compliance check the engine ran, and every input that actually reached the engine: with anything the validator defaulted tagged as assumed, so a misread installation method or an ambient temperature you never gave is visible right next to the answer. The assistant then narrates the result in a couple of sentences, and is not permitted to restate a number with different rounding or different units.
Every result exports the same branded PDF report the calculator exports, with inputs, intermediate values, the governing check and the final figure: a file you can put in a design package rather than a chat transcript. One tap also opens the job in the full calculator with every field populated, so a reviewer can re-trace the calculation by hand or adjust an input and re-run it.
What AI Mode will not do
It can misread your description: which is exactly why every input that reached the engine is listed on the card, and why checking them is part of using it. It cannot see your site, your existing installation or your manufacturer's data; it calculates what you describe. It will not quote or interpret the Wiring Rules for you: stating a clause number, a table number or a numeric limit from memory is explicitly forbidden, because a confident wrong citation is worse than no answer, and standards references only appear where the engine itself produced them.
And verification is not certification. AI Mode is a design aid. Selecting the method, validating the inputs and certifying the design remain with the engineer of record, as they do for every other tool in the suite.
Getting access
AI Mode needs a signed-in ElecAS account, and every account can use it: a free account includes a one-off 50,000-token trial to try it on real jobs (with no time limit on spending it), the Pro plan includes a 500,000-token monthly allowance, and AI Pro carries 5,000,000 tokens a month for people running it all day. Every ElecAS calculator itself stays free to use with no sign-up required to calculate, so AI Mode is a faster way into the same tools rather than a paywall around them. See the Pricing page for current plans and allowances.
Key terms
AI Mode
- The ElecAS feature that accepts a plain-English description of an electrical job, selects the matching AS/NZS calculation engine, runs it in your browser and returns the result, compliance checks and branded PDF report.
Calculation engine
- The production calculation module behind an ElecAS calculator page: the code that loads the AS/NZS reference tables and computes the result. AI Mode calls the same modules rather than re-implementing them.
Tool calling
- The mechanism by which a language model, instead of writing an answer itself, selects a named function and supplies its arguments. In AI Mode it is the only way the assistant can act, which is what stops a generated number reaching a result card.
Assumed input
- A parameter the validator filled with a default because the description did not supply it. Assumed inputs are printed on the result card and in the PDF so the reader can see exactly what was inferred rather than stated.
Hallucination
- A fluent but fabricated output from a language model: a plausible cable size, clause number or limit that was generated rather than looked up. AI Mode is structured so a hallucinated value cannot become a figure on a result card.
Deterministic result
- A result that depends only on its inputs, so the same job returns the same figure and the same report every time. ElecAS results are deterministic because they are computed by an engine, not generated as text.
Frequently asked questions
Is AI Mode just ChatGPT for electrical calculations?
- No. A general chatbot generates its answer as text, which is why it can invent a plausible cable size or clause number. In AI Mode the language model only reads your description, picks one of 16 ElecAS calculation engines and fills that engine's inputs. The number, the compliance checks and the PDF report all come from the same tested calculation module the calculator page uses.
Does the AI actually do the electrical calculation?
- No, and that is the point. The model never computes, estimates or rounds a number. It maps your plain-English description onto the inputs of a calculation engine, and the engine loads the checked-in AS/NZS reference tables and produces the result. The same job typed into the calculator form returns the same answer.
Can AI Mode hallucinate a cable size or a clause number?
- No code path exists where text generated by the model becomes a figure on a result card, so a hallucinated value cannot become an answer. Quoting a clause, table or numeric limit from memory is also explicitly forbidden: standards references only appear where the engine itself produced them. What the model can do is misread your description, which is why every input that reached the engine is printed on the result card for you to check.
Which calculations can AI Mode run?
- Sixteen engines: cable selection and sizing to AS/NZS 3008.1.1, maximum demand by AS/NZS 3000 Tables C1, C2 and C3, voltage drop, voltage rise to AS/NZS 4777.1, earthing conductor size, current-carrying-capacity derating, conduit sizing, cable tray sizing, power factor correction, generator sizing, UPS and battery sizing, arc flash to IEEE 1584-2018, LED inrush, and solar and battery payback. Drawing-driven tools such as EleCAD, Lighting Design and Switchboard Sizing are deliberately excluded.
Is AI Mode free to use?
- Every free ElecAS account includes a one-off trial of 50,000 AI Mode tokens with no time limit on spending them. After that, AI Mode is part of the paid plans: Pro includes 500,000 tokens a month and AI Pro includes 5,000,000 tokens a month. Every ElecAS calculator itself stays free to use, so AI Mode is a faster way into the same tools rather than a paywall around them.
What happens if I leave something out of my description?
- If a required parameter is missing, AI Mode asks you for it rather than inventing a value. If an optional parameter is missing, the validator applies the calculator's documented default and the result card tags that value as assumed, so anything you did not state is visible right next to the answer.
Can I use an AI Mode result in a design submission?
- The result is the calculator's own output: it exports the same branded PDF report with inputs, intermediate values, compliance checks and standards references, and one tap reopens the job in the full calculator so a reviewer can re-trace it by hand. As with every ElecAS tool, the engineer of record remains responsible for validating the inputs and certifying the design.
Why does AI Mode give the same answer every time?
- Because the answer is calculated, not generated. The engine is deterministic: the same inputs return the same figure and the same PDF on every run. With a general AI assistant, rewording the question or starting a new session can change the answer, because that answer was produced as text.