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cadishead

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Has anyone heard of an inexpensive excel spreadsheet for calculating quantities of devices etc. This would be for residential electrical work. If a CD is available, or if you know anyone who sells a ready made spreadsheet or sheets, please let me know.


Thank you.

Email removed please use PMs to exchange info.
 
What type of input do you plan on doing to have the spreadsheet output the desired data? For example - input = 1,800 sq ft house / output = you need 63 duplex receptacles. That would be cool. Sign me up too.
 
Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets

shockin said:
What type of input do you plan on doing to have the spreadsheet output the desired data? For example - input = 1,800 sq ft house / output = you need 63 duplex receptacles. That would be cool. Sign me up too.
Click to expand...

You have a great idea. I am sure that this could be done on an excel spreadsheet. You would have to input square footages and macros etc
I am sure that there are formulas for this type of thing. You could also use the old Estimatic graphical method which can be usedfor residential and commercial electrical work. I was meaning just a totallizing spreadsheet for devices and specials
Shockin
 
Gentlemen and fellow electricians I mean this in the least abrasive way I know how. This is some simple advice I tell all my PMs and estimators, it's almost a canned speech at this point.

If you are in design, a business owner, a PM or an estimator, and you don’t know how to use excel and make a simple spreadsheet like you are asking for, then you really don’t need to be using some spread sheet you found on the internets to do simple formulas like this. It will get you in trouble. Why, because no spreadsheet in the world does it all like you are asking for, you will still have to fill in some educated blanks besides square footage, and because mistakes on spreadsheets are common and if you don’t know how to make the spreadsheet then you wont know how to look for errors, and if you found it on the internet you really don’t know who made it.

Here is a start:

Ball park-jistu: ((3va per sf)/180va per receptacle)+(appliance branch receptacles)+(Laundry)+(dedicated receptacles) Will get you close enough for horse shoes and a bit too close for hand grenades.

If you really just don’t want to take my advice (my wife does not either), I have a load calc spread sheet that I personally made, based on NEC 2005 that IMHO is the cat’s meow that I will sell to you for the special Mike Holt’s forum special of $4.99... if you order in the next 24 hours…but wait for an extra $5 I will throw in a commercial load calc sheet, and just because I like you for $5 more you get the restaurant spread sheet too.. that’s $14.99 for all three…WHAT A DEAL!

Did I mention I also have spread sheets for:

Concrete, truck yards
Concrete, bag mix
Concrete, duct banks
Voltage drop
Panel schedules which tie together for comprehensive load calcs
HP/Starters/ Heaters/ Fuse

… I really need to lay off that 3 cup of afternoon coffee.
 
Last edited:
Excel Spread Sheets

Excel Spread Sheets

cadishead said:
Has anyone heard of an inexpensive excel spreadsheet for calculating quantities of devices etc. This would be for residential electrical work. If a CD is available, or if you know anyone who sells a ready made spreadsheet or sheets, please let me know.
Thank you.
Email removed please use PMs to exchange info.
Click to expand...

Excel is a great program and you can build about anything you are now doing manually. The only problem I have found is when you start getting into having the spread sheet breakdown the materials for each device you end up with a large data base to maintain. I use it for many things but find a good estimating program is better for estimating.
 
Excel

Excel

Grant,
You are correct. It could become a problem. I do have my own excel spreadsheets that totalize. However these are used just for material takeoffs.
I have the summary sheets also. Mine are on a CD with educational files for electricians plus links to electrical websites. The CD is for the USA, UK and India. I am semi retired and I have only sold a few even though they are inexpensive. I was just looking around the internet and forum to see what similar products are out there. I think that "Shockin" could use an Estimatic graph for his or her needs. Thank you for replying.

Cadishead
 
Cadishead said:
What type of excel spreadsheets do you have and how much do they cost? I noticed that Macintyre has quite a few but the voltage drop formula is inaccurate. I do have my own excel totalizing spreadsheets plus an educational CD for electricians. I just wanted to know what was out there on the internet. Thank you for the reply. Shockin was looking for a spreadsheet that would calculate quantities and not loads. The best bet would be the Estimatic graph for ball park quantities. Thank you.
Click to expand...

I am not really selling spread sheets, it was meant to be taken tongue in cheek.

There is not a formula, that I know of, that will give you device quantities for a job other than the ball park guess based on load calcs and that mean nothing for a commercial job.
The best way to get real quantities is to do an old fashion take-off, other than that you?re just making a good guess?remember the hint?

Ball park-jistu: ((3va per sf)/180va per receptacle)+(appliance branch receptacles)+(Laundry)+(dedicated receptacles) Will get you close enough for horse shoes and a bit too close for hand grenades.
Click to expand...

The voltage drop calculator can be a pain because you have to create an array for your wire values and voltages, (be sure to use numeric values for 1/0-4/0), then the rest is simple formulas. Mine solves for wire size, lengths, current, VD?and its correct.

The best excel based estimating work book I have seen in a while is http://www.electrimate.com It?s a really good place to start, he has some good ideas.

As for buying and selling excel spreadsheets, I don?t have enough humility to pull either off well, and just like making my own. I may not be Walkenbach, but I have read his books.
 
Just for the record I was being sarcastic when I refrerenced a program that could actually tell you how many recepts, switchs, can lights ect that you would need by just inputting the square footage. My failed point was the outout information is only as good as the input.

I do have a spreadsheet I use for estimating homes that includes probably 100 different device or opening types. I just input the quantity's of each and the output is a bid price and a complete materials list. The information even carries over to another spreadsheet which inputs the quantities in my proposal. Excel is a very powerful program when you take the time to learn it.
 
I do something similar, everything is an assembly, and every assembly has a predefined bom, and everything gets taken off in big pieces, only I use Timberline.
 
I have one for residential take offs but I actually count the #of recepts, single poles, 3 ways etc. It then gives me how many feet of wire, #of boxes, type and the estimated hours... It works for me because I built it, I know it's shortcomings. I have linked it to another spreadsheet to update to current onhand prices. Time consuming & pia. Make a mistake = GIGO.

Quicker and easier to keep current is to build assemblies in Quickbooks Contractor Premier Edition. It keeps track of individual item prices and raises or lowers (ha ha) as prices change.
 
ITO said:
Gentlemen and fellow electricians I mean this in the least abrasive way I know how. This is some simple advice I tell all my PMs and estimators, it's almost a canned speech at this point.

If you are in design, a business owner, a PM or an estimator, and you don?t know how to use excel and make a simple spreadsheet like you are asking for, then you really don?t need to be using some spread sheet you found on the internets to do simple formulas like this. It will get you in trouble. Why, because no spreadsheet in the world does it all like you are asking for, you will still have to fill in some educated blanks besides square footage, and because mistakes on spreadsheets are common and if you don?t know how to make the spreadsheet then you wont know how to look for errors, and if you found it on the internet you really don?t know who made it.

Here is a start:

Ball park-jistu: ((3va per sf)/180va per receptacle)+(appliance branch receptacles)+(Laundry)+(dedicated receptacles) Will get you close enough for horse shoes and a bit too close for hand grenades.

If you really just don?t want to take my advice (my wife does not either), I have a load calc spread sheet that I personally made, based on NEC 2005 that IMHO is the cat?s meow that I will sell to you for the special Mike Holt?s forum special of $4.99... if you order in the next 24 hours?but wait for an extra $5 I will throw in a commercial load calc sheet, and just because I like you for $5 more you get the restaurant spread sheet too.. that?s $14.99 for all three?WHAT A DEAL!

Did I mention I also have spread sheets for:

Concrete, truck yards
Concrete, bag mix
Concrete, duct banks
Voltage drop
Panel schedules which tie together for comprehensive load calcs
HP/Starters/ Heaters/ Fuse

? I really need to lay off that 3 cup of afternoon coffee.
Click to expand...

You do not sell spreadsheets? Correct?

Cadishead
 
Quicker and easier to keep current is to build assemblies in Quickbooks Contractor Premier Edition. It keeps track of individual item prices and raises or lowers (ha ha) as prices change.[/QUOTE]

I am in the process of modifying my estimating/bidding to use Quickbooks instead of my current two-step process of: 1) enter take-off data in self-created excel spreadsheet, and 2) cut and paste some of the excel data into a word document for customer presentation purposes. I upgraded from QB Pro 2005 to QB Contractor Premier 2008, but have not yet implemented the assemblies and would appreciate learning more about how you set them up. A QB "adviser" suggested that I use groups instead of assemblies but before I proceed it would be great to hear from someone who has done it. I don't want to bog down this thread (unless others are interested too), so perhaps a PM would be best?
 
rlane00 said:
Quicker and easier to keep current is to build assemblies in Quickbooks Contractor Premier Edition. It keeps track of individual item prices and raises or lowers (ha ha) as prices change.
Click to expand...

I am in the process of modifying my estimating/bidding to use Quickbooks instead of my current two-step process of: 1) enter take-off data in self-created excel spreadsheet, and 2) cut and paste some of the excel data into a word document for customer presentation purposes. I upgraded from QB Pro 2005 to QB Contractor Premier 2008, but have not yet implemented the assemblies and would appreciate learning more about how you set them up. A QB "adviser" suggested that I use groups instead of assemblies but before I proceed it would be great to hear from someone who has done it. I don't want to bog down this thread (unless others are interested too), so perhaps a PM would be best?[/quote]

Group is right, not assembly.
 
A group is a set of items that would be typical to a particular opening.

For a single pole switch opening (SW1) you may have group of:

1-CS115I2
1-86003
17-142GNMB
1-EZ20SN
1-RED
1-GREEN
1-RESIDENTIAL LABOR

17 - SW1 units would add the costs of all those items to your bid/invoice/purchase order and remove them from inventory at time of sell.
 
How is that any different than an assembly?

Maybe is just semantics but what you just described to me is what I call an assembly.
 
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