NEC-compliant electrical takeoffs in minutes, not days.
Pilrs reads your electrical drawings and produces device counts, homerun lengths, conduit and wire schedules, and panel loads with NEC compliance baked in. Every estimate is AI-generated then reviewed by a licensed electrical estimator.
Electrical contractors live or die by takeoff accuracy. A modern commercial drawing set runs 40 to 80 sheets — power plans, lighting plans, single-line diagrams, panel schedules, riser diagrams, fire alarm overlays — and the estimator must extract every device, every circuit, every conduit run, and reconcile them against three different views of the same circuit before applying NEC ampacity, fill, and demand rules.
The takeoff bottleneck is symbol fatigue. A senior estimator counting receptacles on a 60,000 SF floor plate stares at 800+ symbols across six sheets, swapping between a power plan and a reflected ceiling for occupancy sensors, then jumping to the lighting plan for switching legs, then back to the panel schedule to balance phases. Eye fatigue causes a 4-8% miscount rate that compounds across the bid — and there is no automated check that the homerun count on the panel schedule matches the device count on the floor plan.
When the bid lands short, it is almost never the unit price that was wrong. It is the count. Five missed receptacles, two miscounted occupancy sensors, one homerun that was traced through the wrong column — and the labor hours collapse the margin before the first conduit is bent.
Three #12 THHN in 1/2" EMT meets the NEC Chapter 9 Table 1 40% fill rule. Substitute #10 THHN late in the bid (because the engineer added a 30-amp circuit) and the conduit must upsize to 3/4". That cascade hits every shared raceway on the run — a single late spec change can void 200 LF of conduit takeoff and 80 fittings.
NECA MLU lists a 20-amp duplex receptacle at 0.45 hours installed. Concealed in 12-foot ceiling? Add 25%. Above accessible ceiling tile? Add 15%. In a congested mechanical room? Add 30%. Manual estimators apply a flat factor or skip the adjustment entirely, which on 600 receptacles is 30-90 lost labor hours.
The single-line diagram shows a 400A feeder to Panel LP-2A. The panel schedule shows 312A connected load at 80% demand factor — that pencils. But the floor plan shows 14 homeruns landing on LP-2A, only 11 of which appear on the panel schedule. Three circuits were added to the floor plan after the panel schedule was issued. Manual takeoffs catch this maybe 60% of the time.
A 2x4 troffer drawn as a hatched rectangle could be a Type A fixture (LED 4000K, $185) or a Type A1 fixture (LED 4000K dimming, $245) — distinguishable only by a small subscript. A 200-fixture office floor with mixed types and a misread subscript is a $12,000 material miss before labor.
Homeruns on commercial plans are typically shown as a curved arrow with a circuit number. The actual run length depends on the routing path, which depends on the structural and architectural conditions on other sheet sets. A homerun that the estimator measured at 80 LF based on the power plan can become 140 LF once it routes around a beam pocket and a return air shaft.
NEC 220.42 applies different demand factors to lighting in dwelling (3,000 VA at 100%, next 117,000 at 35%) versus warehouse (50% above 12,500 VA) versus hospital (40% above 50,000 VA). A mixed-use building requires applying multiple demand factors per zone — manual spreadsheets typically apply one blended factor and undersize the service.
The line items that slip between plan sheets — and the dollars that leave with them.
Fire alarm wire (FPLR or FPLP) shown on FA sheets but not power plans is missed in 28% of joint bids. Average loss: $4,200 per typical commercial floor.
Dishwashers, hand dryers, motorized shades — equipment shown on architectural plans needs an electrical connection. Missed connections average 6-9 per project at $180-340 each in change orders.
A 1200A switchboard with 28-week lead time was not flagged in takeoff. Project schedule slips 6 weeks. Liquidated damages: $1,800/day.
Core drilling slab penetrations for conduit risers in retrofit work runs $85-180 per core. A 14-floor riser with 3 cores per floor is $5,400 of unbid labor.
NEC 2023 adoption is rolling out across 32 states in 2025-2026, introducing GFCI requirements in new occupancies, 690.12 rapid-shutdown for PV, and 220.87 demand calculation methods that break legacy spreadsheet templates. Combined with the IRA-driven electrification surge — heat pumps, EV charging, induction cooking — every commercial electrical bid is now denser per square foot than a 2020 bid by 18-24%. Estimators who cannot scale takeoff throughput will lose share to contractors who can.
Electrical takeoffs fail because the discipline has no tolerance for "close enough." A lighting fixture count off by five units shifts material cost by a few hundred dollars, but a misread one-line diagram that undersizes a 400 A feeder by one gauge can trigger a code-failure punch list, a re-pull, and weeks of rework. Most estimators catch 90% of scope but live in fear of the 10% they miss.
The traditional workflow — colored highlighters on PDFs, counts tallied into Excel, assemblies pulled from a dated labor book — was designed for 1990s projects. Modern commercial plans routinely include 40+ circuits per panel across 6 to 12 panels, each with interdependent loads. Spreadsheets cannot natively enforce NEC 220 demand factors or flag when a proposed conduit run exceeds the 360-degree bend rule.
Labor units are the other silent killer. NECA publishes labor units by task, but adjusting them for ceiling height, accessibility, and concealment requires judgment most junior estimators lack. A missed adjustment on 800 receptacles compounds into a five-figure loss before the first rough-in.
Pilrs ingests electrical drawings — power plans, lighting plans, one-lines, panel schedules — and extracts every device, homerun, and feeder automatically. The AI cross-checks counts against NEC code rules, flags fill violations, generates panel schedules with demand-factor math, and outputs a per-circuit material list. A human electrical estimator then verifies the output before delivery on Professional and Enterprise plans.
Receptacles, switches, occupancy sensors, lighting fixtures, data outlets — identified by symbol and counted across every sheet with duplicate detection.
AI traces homeruns from device back to panel, accounting for vertical risers and horizontal routing, so wire quantities aren't guessed.
Every conduit is sized against Chapter 9 Table 4 fill limits using the conductor schedule you approve — violations flagged before bid.
Produces a balanced panel schedule per NEC 220 with demand factors applied by occupancy type, ready to drop into your bid package.
Automatic checks for 3% branch / 5% total voltage drop on long runs, suggesting upsized conductors where needed.
Applies NECA labor units per device, then adjusts for height, concealment, and accessibility from plan metadata.
From plan upload to verified estimate — purpose-built for electrical contractors.
Drop in E-sheets (power, lighting, one-line, panel schedules) as PDF. Pilrs OCRs the title block and aligns sheet indexes automatically.
Devices, circuits, conduit, and feeders are extracted with scale detection. Symbols are matched against a 200+ item electrical library.
Pilrs runs NEC checks: conduit fill, conductor ampacity, demand factors, voltage drop. A licensed estimator reviews the output.
Branded PDF and Excel export with per-circuit material list, panel schedules, labor hours, and scope assumptions — ready to send.
Direct answers to the questions electrical estimators ask most.
Long-form guides with real waste factors, labor units, and bidding traps — written for working estimators.
How to measure, count, and quantify electrical scope without missing phantom items. Spec-to-drawing cross-checks, waste factors, and the common 2 percent errors that kill bids.
Labor units, burden, markup, and the real 2026 material pricing bands. Where new estimators underbid themselves and what experienced shops carry in contingency.
Upload your plans and get a verified electrical takeoff without rebuilding spreadsheets. 14-day free trial. No credit card required.