Exit signs: what to capture
An exit sign count is more than a tally of symbols. For pricing, note:
- Faces and arrows: single or double face, and the arrow directions shown on the plan.
- Mounting: wall, ceiling or end mount.
- Power: battery backup or an emergency circuit.
- Combination units: exit signs with emergency lighting heads, if the schedule lists them.
Exit sign types usually come from the fixture schedule (often an X or EX type) or from a separate emergency lighting legend.
Emergency lighting
Emergency lighting hides in plain sight on the plans:
- Emergency versions of normal fixtures, marked with a suffix such as EM, shading or a note. They carry battery packs or connect to an emergency circuit.
- Emergency lighting units with their own heads, often in stairs, corridors and electrical rooms.
- Remote heads fed from a unit elsewhere.
Count emergency variants as their own line when the schedule lists them separately. An emergency fixture counted as a normal one leaves battery packs or emergency circuiting off the bid.
Lighting controls: what to capture
- Wall switches: single pole, three-way and four-way, and dimmers.
- Occupancy and vacancy sensors, ceiling or wall mounted.
- Daylight sensors near windows and skylights.
- Low-voltage control stations and room controllers.
- Relay or lighting control panels, if shown.
Controls are often detailed on a separate lighting control plan, a sequence of operations or a control schedule. Read those before pricing.
Commonly missed items
- Switches written as text. An S or $ next to a door is easy to skip on a busy sheet.
- Three-way pairs counted as one. Each location in a three-way or four-way setup is a device.
- Sensors on a different plan from the fixtures they control.
- Exit signs on the life safety plan but not on the lighting plan, or the reverse.
- Emergency fixtures counted under the normal type.
Carrying the counts into your estimate
Keep exit signs, emergency fixtures and controls as their own lines instead of folding them into the fixture total. Separate lines make it easier to:
- Price battery packs, emergency circuits and control devices at their own material and labor rates.
- Answer a value engineering question about controls without recounting the fixtures.
- Check an addendum that changes the egress path or the control sequence.
How InstantTakeoff counts exit signs and controls
- Exit signs and lighting controls are their own categories, counted next to the light fixtures on each lighting plan.
- Wall switches drawn as a symbol and switches written as an S or $ on the plan are both counted as lighting controls.
- Light fixtures are typed from their tags and the fixture schedule, and a type whose tags on the sheet have too few counted fixtures beside them is flagged for a closer look.
- Each count is a box on the sheet. Check, add, remove or retype in a click, and the totals and Excel export follow.
Control symbols vary a lot between engineering firms, so spot-check the control counts when you bid a new firm's drawings. The model keeps improving, checked against a held-out test set. See the accuracy page.
Pricing: $300 per seat per month, billed monthly, or $3,000 per seat per year, billed annually. Exit signs and controls are included. See pricing.
Questions
Are exit signs counted separately from light fixtures?
Yes. Exit signs and lighting controls are their own categories, next to the light fixtures, so they show up as separate lines in your counts.
Does it pick up switches written as text?
Yes. Wall switches drawn as a symbol and switches written on the plan as an S or $ are both counted as lighting controls.
Do control symbols differ between engineering firms?
They do, a lot. The model keeps improving, checked against a held-out test set, and each count is a box you can check on the sheet. See the accuracy page.
What does it cost?
$300 per seat per month, or $3,000 per seat per year, with exit signs and controls included. See pricing.