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About 43 coils — 20 of 1.5 mm², 18 of 2.5 mm² and 5 of 4 mm² — which is roughly 3,780 m of single-core copper, plus about 92 ft of 16 mm² main cable from the meter to the distribution board.
That is a single-storey 10 marla house wired to 78 points on 17 circuits, pulled through conduit, with 15% cut in for wastage. Double storey takes about 79 coils. A coil is 90 m — the length the trade sells house wire in.
A single-storey 10 marla house of about 1,800 sq ft covered area, wired to 78 points on 17 circuits, needs roughly 3,780 m of single-core copper conductor: 1,725 m of 1.5 mm² for lights and fans, 1,615 m of 2.5 mm² for socket, kitchen and pump circuits, 411 m of 4 mm² for four AC points, two geysers and the hob, and about 29 m of 6 mm² for the main earth. In 90 m coils that is 20 + 18 + 5 = 43 coils. Those figures carry a 15% wastage margin and assume a centrally placed distribution board, conduit routing and one floor.
Technical sources quote metres. Shops sell coils. One standard coil of single-core building wire is 90 m, near enough 100 yards, so the conversion at the counter is metres ÷ 90, rounded up per size.
Costed 10 marla electrical estimates do exist online, but the ones we could find compress every wire in the house into a single lump figure with no size split, no length and no cable list. That is fine for a budget line and useless at the shop counter, which is where this page starts.
Three inputs, multiplied. Every one of them is visible, so you can move any of them to match your own house.
78 on a single-storey 10 marla plan: 40 light and fan points, 30 socket points, 4 AC points, 2 geysers, 1 hob or oven, 1 pump. Count yours off the approved layout.
15 m per point: its share of the circuit run back to the DB, plus the ceiling rise and the switch drop. A 1,800 sq ft floor is roughly 35 × 51 ft, and a single central board is already a long reach on that footprint.
2.5 for lighting and fan circuits, where switch legs share neutrals; 3 for socket and appliance circuits, which each carry live, neutral and earth.
Lighting and fans: 40 × 15 × 2.5 = 1,500 m. Sockets and kitchen: 30 × 15 × 3 = 1,350 m. Pump, on an 18 m run: 1 × 18 × 3 = 54 m, giving 1,404 m of 2.5 mm². Four ACs, two geysers and the hob on 17 m runs: 7 × 17 × 3 = 357 m of 4 mm². Main earth: 25 m. Raw total 3,286 m. Add 15%: 3,286 × 1.15 = 3,779 m. Divide by 90 and round up per size: 43 coils.
Cross-check against the trade rule of 1.5–2 ft of conduit run per sq ft of plot. At 2,250 sq ft that is 1,030–1,370 m of runs, and at 2–3 conductors per run, 2,060–4,110 m of conductor. 3,779 m sits inside it. The method itself is on how much cable a house needs.
| Circuit | Size (strand code) | Conductor metres | Coils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lighting and fan circuits | 1.5 mm² (3/.029) | 1,725 m | 20 |
| Socket, kitchen and pump circuits | 2.5 mm² (7/.029) | 1,615 m | 18 |
| 4 AC points, 2 geysers, hob | 4 mm² (7/.036) | 411 m | 5 |
| Main earth conductor | 6 mm² (7/.044) | 29 m | cut length |
| Meter to DB main cable | 16 mm² 2 core (7/.064) | 28 m / 92 ft | cut length |
A 10 marla plot is 2,250 sq ft. After setback, stairs, porch and lawn you build about 1,800 sq ft per floor — typically four bedrooms, a drawing room, a lounge, a kitchen, a store and three or four bathrooms.
| Room | Light and fan | Socket | Appliance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bedroom 1 (master) | 6 | 4 | 1 AC |
| Bedroom 2 | 5 | 3 | 1 AC |
| Bedroom 3 | 4 | 3 | 1 AC |
| Bedroom 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 AC |
| Drawing room | 6 | 4 | — |
| Lounge and dining | 7 | 5 | — |
| Kitchen and store | 4 | 5 | 1 hob |
| 4 bathrooms | 4 | — | 2 geysers |
| Porch, stairs, lawn, outside | — | 3 | 1 pump |
| Total | 40 | 30 | 8 |
This is the cable the coil list does not cover and almost no published estimate names. It runs from the WAPDA or K-Electric meter to your distribution board, it carries the whole house, and at 10 marla it is the first plot size where getting it wrong is expensive. Here is the sizing, in full, because the plot pages that carry a figure for it never show the working.
Step one, the load. Take the sanctioned load off your meter card — not off a guide. A 10 marla domestic connection is commonly sanctioned around 12 kW. At 220 V single phase, 12,000 ÷ 220 = 54.5 A. If your connection is three phase, divide by 400 × 1.732 = 693 instead, which puts the same 12 kW at 17.3 A per phase and drops you two cable sizes.
Step two, current capacity. On BS 7671 method C at 30°C, 10 mm² copper two-core carries 63 A and 16 mm² carries 85 A. Both clear 54.5 A on paper. A service cable buried, sleeved or run against a sun-facing wall does not sit at 30°C, which is the whole argument for not sizing to the edge.
Step three, voltage drop. The run is about 28 m (92 ft) from a boundary-wall meter to a board inside. On 10 mm²: 54.5 × 28 × 4.4 ÷ 1000 = 6.72 V. On 16 mm²: 54.5 × 28 × 2.8 ÷ 1000 = 4.28 V. The budget is 5% of 220 V, which is 11 V, so both pass — but the 10 mm² figure has already spent 61% of the house's entire drop allowance before the first circuit leaves the board.
The answer. 16 mm² two-core copper, about 92 running feet. 10 mm² is the minimum that passes; 16 mm² is what leaves the rest of the house a voltage budget to spend. In aluminium the same job goes a size up again. Two-core for a single-phase connection, four-core for three-phase. The rationale in full is on WAPDA meter cable size and main meter cable.
| Size | Capacity | Drop over 28 m | Budget used | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 mm² | 46 A | 11.15 V | 101% | Fails both |
| 10 mm² | 63 A | 6.72 V | 61% | Minimum that passes |
| 16 mm² | 85 A | 4.28 V | 39% | Recommended |
| 25 mm² | 112 A | 2.67 V | 24% | For a 15 kW upgrade |
Most 10 marla houses are built to two floors. The upper floor carries about 85% of the ground floor's points — no porch, no lawn, no pump — and gets its own board fed by a riser, not a set of circuits pulled up the stairs.
| Item | Single storey | Double storey |
|---|---|---|
| Points | 78 | 144 |
| 1.5 mm² coils | 20 | 36 |
| 2.5 mm² coils | 18 | 34 |
| 4 mm² coils | 5 | 9 |
| Total coils | 43 | 79 |
| Conductor metres | 3,779 m | 6,991 m |
| Boards | 1 × 24 way | 1 × 24 way + 1 × 18 way |
| Riser to upper board | — | 16 mm², about 16 m |
| Meter to DB | 16 mm² | 25 mm² on a 15 kW load |
Note the last row. A double-storey 10 marla usually comes with a load upgrade, and the moment the sanctioned load moves from 12 to 15 kW the service current goes from 54.5 A to 68.2 A — past what 16 mm² should be asked to hold for the life of the house. Size the service for the finished building, not the ground floor.
Ask for 1.5 mm² at a shop in Pakistan and you will be handed 3/.029. The strand code is the trade's real vocabulary and it is imperial: 3 strands of 0.029 inch. Multiply it out and the two systems do not line up exactly.
| Strand code | True area | Sold as | Usual job |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3/.029 | 1.29 mm² | 1.5 mm² | Lights, fans |
| 7/.029 | 3.0 mm² | 2.5–3 mm² | Sockets, kitchen |
| 7/.036 | 4.6 mm² | 4 mm² | AC, geyser, hob |
| 7/.044 | 6.9 mm² | 6 mm² | Earth, submains |
| 7/.052 | 9.6 mm² | 10 mm² | Riser, small service |
| 7/.064 | 14.5 mm² | 16 mm² | Meter to DB |
3/.029 measures 1.29 mm², under a true 1.5 mm², so keep it on 6 A lighting circuits and off sockets. 7/.029 measures 3.0 mm², over a true 2.5 mm². How to verify a delivered coil against these numbers is set out on the 5 marla wiring page.
| Circuit | Size | Capacity | Voltage drop | Breaker |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lighting, fans | 1.5 mm² | 19.5 A | 29 mV/A/m | 6 A |
| Sockets, kitchen, pump | 2.5 mm² | 27 A | 18 mV/A/m | 16 A |
| AC points, geysers, hob | 4 mm² | 36 A | 11 mV/A/m | 20–25 A |
| Main earth | 6 mm² | 46 A | 7.3 mV/A/m | — |
| Riser to upper board | 16 mm² | 85 A | 2.8 mV/A/m | 63 A |
Sizing one circuit rather than a whole house? The selection chart is on single-phase cable size, the AC circuit is worked through on cable for a 1.5 ton AC, and long runs are settled by the voltage drop calculator.
Estimates for electrical work on the same size of house differ by several times over, and the reason is scope, not the house. One figure is the wire alone; the next adds conduit, boards and accessories; the third adds the electrician. Almost none of them say which, and comparing across them is meaningless until you know.
| Scope | What is in it | Who supplies it |
|---|---|---|
| A. Wire and cable only | The 43 coils, the 6 mm² earth conductor, the 16 mm² meter-to-DB main cable | Pilone Cables, factory-direct |
| B. A plus fittings | Conduit pipe, back boxes, switches, sockets, the 24-way board and its MCBs, earth electrode | Electrical store |
| C. B plus labour | Chasing walls, laying conduit, pulling wire, terminating, testing, making good the plaster | Your electrician or contractor |
Scope A is the only one we price, and we price it at the day's copper rate because copper is what moves it. Per-point and per-square-foot labour rates sit on cable installation cost. Send the coil list on WhatsApp and scope A comes back as one figure for your city.
The meter-to-DB run on a 10 marla house: 7/1.70 class 2 copper, PVC insulated and sheathed, rated 85 A on method C. About 92 running feet on this layout.
Prices track the daily copper rate. Send the coil list and your city for today's factory rate on the whole lot.
The rest of the list: 3/.029 single core copper cable, 7/.029 single core copper cable, 4mm single core copper cable, 6mm single core copper cable for the earth.
We draw the copper in Lahore and sell it at the day's rate — no dealer margin. Send the coil list and your city for today's number: Punjab in 1–2 days, rest of Pakistan in 2–4.