Hi,
I have been working for an electrical contractor for about 3 years now and for the past 6 months I have been given small electrical projects to do take-offs and estimates on. I was given no training on this, other than resources online, the NEC, and using what I learned from my college education (Construction Management) to come up with a somewhat complete electrical estimate.
My biggest issue seems to be understanding how to take-off branch electrical. I generally create a simple assembly for receptacles and switches. For example, for each receptacle I count, it would have a device box, switch, cover-plate, 10' or so of MC or EMT, and a ceiling box. From that ceiling box, I would move to the next one and so forth.
My biggest hang-up is when combining circuits (generally do 4 circuits per home-run). My supervisor just told me to take my EMT count and multiply it by 3.6 for lighting and 4.6 for receptacles. So if I have 150' of EMT for lighting circuits 1, 3, 5, and 7, I would multiply 150*3.6 giving me 540' of wire. This just seems wrong to me. Should I be multiplying each circuit by 3.6? giving me 150*4*3.6=2160'?
Like I said, I have little to no knowledge of electrical estimating, especially commercial. I am pretty much going off of what I could find online and advice from people in my office. Smaller projects it doesn't seem to matter much, but some of the larger projects I am doing ($800,000 to $1,000,000 for electrical) can become a nightmare.
I have been working for an electrical contractor for about 3 years now and for the past 6 months I have been given small electrical projects to do take-offs and estimates on. I was given no training on this, other than resources online, the NEC, and using what I learned from my college education (Construction Management) to come up with a somewhat complete electrical estimate.
My biggest issue seems to be understanding how to take-off branch electrical. I generally create a simple assembly for receptacles and switches. For example, for each receptacle I count, it would have a device box, switch, cover-plate, 10' or so of MC or EMT, and a ceiling box. From that ceiling box, I would move to the next one and so forth.
My biggest hang-up is when combining circuits (generally do 4 circuits per home-run). My supervisor just told me to take my EMT count and multiply it by 3.6 for lighting and 4.6 for receptacles. So if I have 150' of EMT for lighting circuits 1, 3, 5, and 7, I would multiply 150*3.6 giving me 540' of wire. This just seems wrong to me. Should I be multiplying each circuit by 3.6? giving me 150*4*3.6=2160'?
Like I said, I have little to no knowledge of electrical estimating, especially commercial. I am pretty much going off of what I could find online and advice from people in my office. Smaller projects it doesn't seem to matter much, but some of the larger projects I am doing ($800,000 to $1,000,000 for electrical) can become a nightmare.
