Electrical · 73 devicesWorked on a public bid setPublished in full, no form
A real electrical takeoff, on drawings you can pull yourself.
Client drawings are confidential and we will not publish them, so this sample is worked on a public agency bid set instead. Sheet E2.1, one power plan, 73 devices, every circuit tag reconciled against the panel schedule, three questions raised. Nothing below rests on you taking our word for it.
Electrical takeoff, sheet E2.1 Power Plan
Quantities only. No prices invented, you apply your own.
Sheets counted 1 of 4
Devices 73
Panel Panelboard A
Findings 2 errors, 1 assumption
01 How the sheet was read, before anything was counted
| Step | What it found on this set |
|---|
| Inventory the set first | 4 sheets. Legend on sheet 1. Countable plans on 2, 3 and 4. |
| Find the legend | ELECTRICAL SYMBOL LIST, sheet 1. E2.1 itself carries no legend at all. |
| Test the annotation text | Not machine readable. Sheet read visually, not extracted. |
| Partition the count | By room boundary. Rooms do not overlap, image tiles do. |
| Reconcile | Every circuit tag against the Panelboard A schedule. |
The legend was on a different sheet from the plan, and that is the normal case, not the exception. Working from E2.1 alone you cannot tell a duplex receptacle from a GFCI, and the difference is a device that costs several times as much. This is why our upload page asks you for the legend sheet instead of guessing: a solid filled circle is a GFCI in one drawing office's convention and a junction box in another's.
02 The symbol key, and the check that it was read correctly
| Symbol on E2.1 | Meaning per the sheet 1 legend |
|---|
| open circle, bisected | duplex receptacle outlet |
| open circle, half filled | duplex receptacle, isolated ground |
| open circle, crossed | quad receptacle outlet |
| solid filled circle | ground fault interrupter (GFCI) |
| solid triangle | telephone / data outlet |
| circled J | junction box |
| rectangle with tail | disconnect switch |
A legend can be misread, so it was checked against something independent rather than trusted. The solid circles on this sheet sit at the janitor closet mop sink, both restroom lavatories, the break room counter at 42in, and the exterior wall. Those are the locations where GFCI protection is required in a non-dwelling occupancy. A symbol key that predicts device placement correctly is a symbol key that was read correctly.
03 Device counts, room by room
| Area | What is in it | Qty |
|---|
| Private offices 3 to 8 | 12 duplex on A-10/12/14/16/18, plus 6 tel/data, one per office | 18 |
| Break Room 12 | microwave A-28, disposal A-30, dishwasher A-32, 2 counter-top A-34, fridge C-7 | 6 |
| Restrooms 13, 14 and Janitor 16 | 2 lavatory GFCI on A-6, 2 duplex A-20/22, janitor GFCI A-40, mop sink A-39 | 6 |
| Open Office 9, Copy 10, 11, 18, 19 | 11 duplex, 2 tel/data, 1 weatherproof GFCI at the exterior wall on A-37 | 14 |
| Conference 21, Interview 20, Reception 1, 2 | 13 duplex, 3 tel/data including two at 84in, conference floor box A-6, 3 junction boxes | 20 |
| Mezzanine, Storage 22, IT 23 | 2 duplex A-40, IT rack A-36, phone board A-38, lighting control panel existing to remain | 5 |
| Mechanical connections | 2 disconnects at AHU-1 and AHU-2, feeder to RTU-1, feeder to CU-1 | 4 |
73 devices on one sheet, taken device by device with the room number carried on every line so you can find any of them on the drawing in seconds. Not scaled, not estimated from floor area. The lighting control panel is listed as existing to remain and carries no cost, because scope you can see is safer than scope you discover.
04 The reconciliation against Panelboard A
| Circuit on the plan | Panel schedule says | Where it lands |
|---|
| A-26 | COPPIER | Copy 10 |
| A-28 | MICROWAVE | break room, 24in AFF |
| A-30 | GARBAGE DISPOSAL | break room, 18in AFF, under sink |
| A-32 | DISH WASHER | break room |
| A-34 | COUNTER TOP REC | break room, 42in AFF, two of them |
| A-36 | IT RACK | IT 23, mezzanine |
| A-38 | PHONEBOARD REC | mezzanine, beside the panels |
| A-40 | MEZZ REC | mezzanine, and the janitor closet |
This is the step that separates a count from a takeoff. One cross-check worth showing because it passed: keynote 9 reads "CONTROL RECEPTACLE CIRCUITS 'A-12' AND 'A-16' THROUGH LIGHTING CONTROL PANEL", and the schedule independently labels circuit 12 and circuit 16, and only those two, as OFFICE REC CONTROLLED. Two documents agreeing that precisely is the signal that the read is sound.
05 What the reconciliation turned up
- Two devices are circuited to breakers the schedule lists as SPARE.The plan runs the weatherproof GFCI on the south exterior wall of Open Office 9 to A-37, and the mop sink receptacle in the existing janitor closet to A-39. Panelboard A lists circuits 29, 31, 33, 35, 37, 39 and 41 all as SPARE, 20A single pole. Ask: are those spare breakers already installed and simply not relabelled, or are the two devices meant to land elsewhere? Bid impact: if they are installed, nothing. If not, two 20A single pole breakers plus their branch circuits. Nobody should carry that as an allowance without asking.
- The panel voltage contradicts the panel's own ampere figures.The Panelboard A header reads 240Y/120V. Checked at high magnification, that is genuinely what the drawing says and not a transcription slip on our side. But every ampere figure printed on the same set is a 208V calculation:
40.7 kVA at 208V three phase gives 113.0 A. The drawing states 113.0.
42.9 kVA at 208V three phase gives 119.1 A. The drawing states 119.1.
The same two loads at 240V give 97.9 A and 103.2 A, which match nothing on the sheet.
The notation is also impossible on its face. A wye system with 120V line to neutral is 120 x 1.732, which is 207.8V line to line. A 240V wye with a 120V neutral does not exist. 240/120V does exist, but as a single phase or high leg delta arrangement, not a wye. Ask: confirm the service is 208Y/120V and the header is a typo. Bid impact: quantities are unaffected because the engineer's own load calculations are already at 208V, but anyone sizing feeders or equipment off the 240V header will get it wrong. - Circuit A-40 is described as mezzanine but crosses floors.A-40 is labelled MEZZ REC in the schedule and also serves the GFCI at the ground floor janitor closet. That is not an error, a branch circuit routinely serves several receptacles, but the description is incomplete, and anyone taking conduit off the description alone will underrun it. Priced here as one circuit serving both levels.
Two of those three are found by arithmetic rather than by reading symbols, which is why you can check them yourself in about ten seconds. A takeoff that raises nothing has measured the drawings without reading them.
06 Assumptions carried, stated rather than buried
| Where the drawing was silent | What we carried |
|---|
| Dishwasher receptacle height not stated | Left open and raised as a question, not invented |
| Mounting height sitting between two devices | Not attached to either. Raised instead of guessed |
| Existing lighting control panel | Listed for visibility, no cost carried |
| Devices on sheets 3 and 4 | Not in this count. One sheet was the scope |
| Waste factor | 5 percent, applied where the spreadsheet shows it |
An estimate without its assumptions written down is not an
estimate, it is a guess with a decimal point. Every line here is a number that moves
the moment you tell us otherwise.
07 Excluded from this takeoff
- All pricing. Unit cost columns left blank for your supplier numbers
- Labour rates and prevailing wage determination
- Trades on the other sheets of this set
- Fire alarm and low voltage
- Data and communications cabling beyond the outlets shown
- Field verification of existing conditions
- Temporary power
- Trenching and site work
- Permits and inspection fees
- Testing and commissioning
- Sales tax and freight
- Overtime and off-hours work
Exclusions are published in plain sight so nothing is assumed covered
that is not. The dangerous line item is always the one nobody wrote down.
Send one sheet of your own. We count it free.
Your drawing, real quantities back by 8am, no card and no call. If it holds up, the rest
of the set is priced by sheet count. If it does not, you have lost nothing and you keep the
sheet.