Electrical Takeoff: Count Devices, Conduit and Wire From a Plan Set

An electrical takeoff is the count of devices and fixtures plus the conduit and wire lengths taken from the electrical sheets. Work in this order: devices, conduit along its route, then wire derived from that conduit, because each step feeds the next. This electrical takeoff example runs one invented office floor through the sequence with every input printed, so you can rebuild each total from the printed inputs. If you want the general method first, read how a takeoff is built.

What an electrical takeoff has to produce

A takeoff should give purchasing and the crew six things:

• Devices by type.

• Luminaires by tag.

• Conduit by type and size.

• Wire by size and conductor count.

• Boxes and fittings.

• A written list of what you left out.

Your own estimator, a sub's office or an outside desk can produce that list. What an outside desk sends back is described on the service page if you hand it out.

The example floor is invented and simplified: 2,400 square feet, eight rooms and one panel, LP1, in the electrical room. These inputs drive every number:

• The ceiling is 9 feet. Conduit runs above it at 10 feet.

• The panel top is at 6.5 feet, so each home run rises 3.5 feet.

• Switch boxes sit at 48 inches and receptacle boxes at 18 inches, both to the box center.

• A run carries 3 conductors (hot, neutral, ground). A switch drop carries 4 (line, switched leg, neutral, ground).

• Slack is 1 foot per conductor at every box.

• Overage is 5 percent, a placeholder that shows the step.

Take real heights from the drawing notes or the specification. Where accessibility rules apply, the reach range for operable parts is 15 to 48 inches when unobstructed, so a drawn height outside it is worth a question. The 1 foot of slack is a placeholder, not a code figure. The electrical code sets a minimum free conductor length at each box, so look it up, with any exception for unspliced conductors, in the edition your jurisdiction has adopted.

Electrical takeoff starts with the legend, not the lights

Open these five before you mark a symbol:

1. Sheet index and addendum log, so you count current sheets only.

2. Legend, abbreviations and general notes.

3. Luminaire and panel schedules, plus any one-line or riser diagram.

4. Division 26 specification, which names the wiring methods.

5. Mechanical, plumbing and equipment sheets that call for power.

Notes change counts without marking a symbol. In the example, a general note makes every break room and restroom receptacle GFCI. No symbol shows it, yet 5 of the 28 receptacles change type. The same symbol can mean different things on different sheets, so the legend on the sheet in front of you controls.

The specification can change the material but not the logic: one set calls for EMT everywhere, another only on home runs. Read it first and split the lines to match.

Count devices and fixtures, one mark per symbol

Count room by room and mark each symbol once, one color per type, so an unmarked symbol is a missed symbol. Lighting, power and systems often sit on separate plans, so each room needs more than one pass. Put the room code in the item cell of every line of your takeoff sheet layout, so you can recount one room without rereading the set. When someone asks where a number came from, quantities trace back to the sheet.

Table 1 shows the tally. Type A is a 2-by-4 troffer, B a 6-inch downlight and X an exit sign.

Table 1. Device and fixture tally.

Reconcile next. Check your 30 luminaires against the luminaire schedule: every type you counted should appear on it, and every scheduled type should appear on a plan. Then trace each circuit on the panel schedule to the devices you assigned to it, so all 37 device boxes sit on a circuit. A count that disagrees with a schedule is a question for the designer, not a number to average.

Measure conduit along the real route, then add the drops

Measure the path the conduit will take, not the straight line between boxes. Follow building lines and keep each home run as its own line. A home run is trade shorthand for the stretch from the panel to a circuit's first box, and some specifications name a different wiring method for it.

Plan view hides the vertical, so every circuit needs a rise out of the panel and a drop to each wall box. Conduit length is the route plus the panel rise plus the drops. A drop is the conduit height minus the box height: 10 feet minus 4 feet is 6 feet at a switch, and 10 feet minus 1.5 feet is 8.5 feet at a receptacle.

Table 2. Conduit by circuit. Route lengths are given inputs for the invented plan, and sticks include 5 percent overage.

The drops add up to 292 of the 961.5 feet, about 30 percent of the conduit.

Steel EMT is made in 10-foot lengths as the standard, though other lengths are allowed, so convert footage to sticks. Table 2 shows sticks after the 5 percent overage, rounded up per circuit. For L1, 149.5 x 1.05 is 157.0 feet, so 16 sticks. On the total, 961.5 x 1.05 is 1,009.6 feet, or 101 sticks, while rounding each circuit up gives 103. Write the rule on the sheet.

Turn conduit runs into wire counts

Wire is not a copy of conduit. For each stretch, multiply the conduit length by the conductors in it, then add slack at every box. Read conductor counts from the panel schedule, circuit tags and home run marks, and wire size from the breaker plus any upsizing the specification adds.

Here is circuit L1. The route and rise are 134 + 3.5 = 137.5 feet at 3 conductors, or 412.5 feet. The two switch drops are 12 feet at 4 conductors, or 48 feet. That is 460.5 feet in the raceway. Slack covers 13 points at 3 conductors (12 troffers and an exit sign) plus 2 switches at 4, so 39 + 8 = 47 feet. L1 totals 507.5 feet.

Table 3. Wire by circuit, in conductor-feet.

With 5 percent overage the order is 3,312.2 feet, split by size and color. Three cases change the counts more than rounding does:

• Shared raceways. Count conduit once and wire per circuit. If P2 and P3 share 30 feet of home run, conduit falls to 931.5 feet, but that stretch still holds 6 conductors, or 180 feet of wire. Check fill, since the shared stretch may need a larger size.

• Shared neutrals. A multi-wire branch circuit carries fewer conductors than the same circuits counted alone. The home run marks show which are combined.

• The ground path. If the specification lets the raceway serve as the ground path, a run drops to 2 conductors and a switch drop to 3. This floor then falls from 3,154.5 to 2,124 feet.

Boxes, fittings and the items that fall between sheets

Many order lines appear on no sheet. Each part follows from a count by a written rule, as Table 4 shows.

Table 4. Parts that follow from counts. Whips come pre-wired, so their wire is not in Table 3. Junction and pull boxes at the tops of drops and at turns depend on the route and are not counted here. The specification and the code edition set strap spacing.

Then list what no count covers. Work can split among Division 26 (electrical), 27 (communications) and 28 (electronic safety and security). One university's standard files fire detection and alarm under Division 28, and the division titles are public. The documents decide who carries each piece, not habit.

Table 5. Scope boundaries for the example floor.

Write each exclusion as a plain sentence a GC can read in the bid. Sample wording for exclusions shows how. The habit carries to other trades: a plumbing takeoff counts fixtures by system before it measures pipe.

Before the takeoff leaves your desk:

• Sheets and addenda are logged.

• Counts match the schedules, or the gap is a written question.

• Every home run has a rise, and every drop uses the stated heights.

• Wire is counted per circuit, not copied from conduit.

• Notes and the specification are checked for GFCI, the ground path and other type changes.

• Every omission is a written exclusion.

From electrical takeoff to a bid number, with hours as variables

To estimate electrical work from the takeoff, multiply each quantity by unit hours from your own job history. Leave the unit hours as variables:

hours = 37 x h_dev + 32 x h_lum + 9.615 x h_con + 31.545 x h_wire

That is 37 devices, 32 luminaires and exit signs, 9.615 hundred feet of conduit and 31.545 hundred conductor-feet of wire, so h_con and h_wire are hours per 100 feet. Fold the Table 4 parts into each unit hour or give them their own variable, so none is counted twice or dropped. Keep difficulty, such as lift height or night work, as named adders a reviewer can see. Labor cost is hours times your loaded rate. Material comes from supplier quotes, and overhead and profit follow. From takeoff to bid price walks that ladder.

This method fits branch lighting and power. Feeders come from the riser or one-line diagram and gear is counted by tag, so give them their own pass. The example is simplified: one floor, one raceway type and size, one wire size, flat drop heights, no controls, no wire inside the panel, no fire alarm, exit signs wired like lighting points and rule-based fittings. A real set has offsets, mixed heights, sizes that change by circuit and exit signs on an unswitched or emergency source.

When the electrical set is bigger than your week

The example has 69 points. A real set adds floors, a riser, gear and systems. Estimate the counting time first: sheets times your minutes per sheet, plus review, against the hours you have before the quote cutoff. As an illustration, 30 sheets at 25 minutes is 750 minutes, or 12.5 hours. Add 3 hours of review and the counting needs 15.5 hours. With 12 hours left before the cutoff, the need is larger than the time, so hand off the takeoff and keep the pricing.

Takeoff Services LLC sells outsourced takeoffs, so test that rule on your own hours: if the counting fits your week, keep it in house.

If the set lands on a Thursday and the bid is due Tuesday, the counting alone can take the weekend; handing one trade to an outside desk is a normal answer, and marked-up sheets let you check every number yourself. Software, AI or an outside desk compares the options on criteria instead of names. To see the dates, plan back from the bid date.

Frequently asked questions