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About 21 coils — 10 of 1.5 mm², 9 of 2.5 mm² and 2 of 4 mm² — which is roughly 1,800 m of single-core copper, plus about 72 ft of 10 mm² main cable from the meter to the distribution board.
That is a single-storey 5 marla house wired to 46 points on 11 circuits, pulled through conduit, with 15% cut in for wastage; a coil is 90 m, the length the trade sells house wire in. Double storey takes about 38 coils. On cost, first ask which of three scopes you are being quoted — wire only, wire plus fittings, or both plus labour — because that, not the house, is why published 5 marla totals differ several times over.
A single-storey 5 marla house of about 950 sq ft covered area, wired to 46 points on 11 circuits, needs roughly 1,800 m of single-core copper conductor: 828 m of 1.5 mm² for lights and fans, 797 m of 2.5 mm² for socket, kitchen and pump circuits, 145 m of 4 mm² for the two AC points and the geyser, and about 23 m of 6 mm² for the main earth. Bought in 90 m coils that is 10 + 9 + 2 = 21 coils. Those figures carry a 15% wastage margin and assume a centrally placed distribution board, conduit routing and one floor.
Every technical source quotes house wiring in metres. Every shop in Pakistan sells it in coils. One standard coil of single-core building wire is 90 m, near enough 100 yards, so the conversion you need at the counter is metres ÷ 90, rounded up per size because nobody cuts you a 828 m length.
If a published figure for a 5 marla house looks far off this one, count its points and its assumed run length; if it shows neither, it cannot be compared with this one. A double-storey 5 marla on the same point density comes to about 38 coils, and a list built for a heavier appliance load will sit higher again.
Three inputs, multiplied. No published 5 marla wiring list shows them, which is why no published list can be adjusted to your house.
46 on a single-storey 5 marla plan: 24 light and fan points, 18 socket points, 2 AC points, 1 geyser, 1 pump. Count yours off the approved layout — this is the input that matters most.
12 m per point: its share of the circuit run back to the distribution board, plus the ceiling rise and the switch drop. A 950 sq ft floor is roughly 25 × 38 ft, whose diagonal alone is 13.9 m.
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: 24 × 12 × 2.5 = 720 m. Sockets and kitchen: 18 × 12 × 3 = 648 m. Pump, on a 15 m run: 1 × 15 × 3 = 45 m, so 693 m of 2.5 mm² in total. Two ACs and a geyser, on 14 m runs: 3 × 14 × 3 = 126 m of 4 mm². Main earth: 20 m. Raw total 1,559 m. Add 15% for cutting waste and failed pulls: 1,559 × 1.15 = 1,793 m. Divide by 90, round up per size: 21 coils.
Cross-check against the trade rule of 1.5–2 ft of conduit run per sq ft of plot. At 1,125 sq ft that is 515–686 m of runs, and at 2–3 conductors per run, roughly 1,000–2,000 m of conductor. 1,793 m sits inside it. The method itself, circuit by circuit and adjustable, is on how much cable a house needs.
| Circuit | Size (strand code) | Conductor metres | Coils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lighting and fan circuits | 1.5 mm² (3/.029) | 828 m | 10 |
| Socket, kitchen and pump circuits | 2.5 mm² (7/.029) | 797 m | 9 |
| 2 AC points, geyser point | 4 mm² (7/.036) | 145 m | 2 |
| Main earth conductor | 6 mm² (7/.044) | 23 m | cut length |
| Meter to distribution board (DB) main cable | 10 mm² 2 core copper (7/.052) | 22 m / 72 ft | cut length |
A 5 marla plot is 1,125 sq ft. After setback, stairs and porch you build about 950 sq ft per floor — on most plans three bedrooms or two plus a drawing room, a lounge, a kitchen and two bathrooms.
| Room | Light and fan | Socket | Appliance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bedroom 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 AC |
| Bedroom 2 | 4 | 3 | 1 AC |
| Drawing room | 4 | 3 | — |
| Lounge | 5 | 3 | — |
| Kitchen | 3 | 4 | — |
| 2 bathrooms | 2 | — | 1 geyser |
| Porch, stairs, outside | 2 | 2 | 1 pump |
| Total | 24 | 18 | 4 |
Those 46 points group into 11 circuits: 3 lighting, 3 socket, 1 kitchen, 2 AC, 1 geyser, 1 pump. Add the 20% spare capacity any board should carry and you need 13 ways, so an 18-way distribution board. A 12-way fits the circuits but leaves you nothing, and a full board is the reason most houses end up with two appliances sharing one MCB (the circuit breaker in the board).
This is the question nobody publishes an answer to. The upper floor carries about 85% of the ground floor's points — no porch, no main entrance, no pump — and adds a riser from the ground board to a second board upstairs.
| Item | Single storey | Double storey |
|---|---|---|
| Points | 46 | 85 |
| 1.5 mm² coils | 10 | 18 |
| 2.5 mm² coils | 9 | 17 |
| 4 mm² coils | 2 | 3 |
| Total coils | 21 | 38 |
| Conductor metres | 1,793 m | 3,317 m |
| Boards | 1 × 18 way | 1 × 18 way + 1 × 12 way |
| Riser to upper board | — | 10 mm², about 12 m |
The coil list wires the house. It does not feed it. The run from the WAPDA or K-Electric meter to your distribution board is a separate two-core cable, and it is the single line missing from almost every 5 marla wiring list published.
Assume a 7.5 kW sanctioned load, typical for a 5 marla domestic connection — read the real figure off your meter card, not off a guide. At 220 V single phase that is 7,500 ÷ 220 = 34.1 A. Over a 22 m (72 ft) run, 6 mm² copper carries 46 A and drops 34.1 × 22 × 7.3 ÷ 1000 = 5.47 V, inside the 11 V that 5% of 220 V allows. 6 mm² passes on the numbers. Run 10 mm² copper: it carries 63 A, drops 3.30 V, and still has room when the third AC goes in. Two-core or four-core depends on whether the connection is single or three phase — the full rationale is on WAPDA meter cable size and main meter cable. The same run in aluminium is a size up, and is on 16mm 2 core aluminium cable.
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 an imperial one: 3 strands of 0.029 inch. Multiply it out and the two numbering 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 |
| 7/.044 | 6.9 mm² | 6 mm² | Earth, submains |
| 7/.052 | 9.6 mm² | 10 mm² | Meter to DB |
| 7/.064 | 14.5 mm² | 16 mm² | Heavy service run |
Work the first row yourself: 0.029 in is 0.7366 mm, so one strand is π/4 × 0.7366² = 0.426 mm², and three of them make 1.28 mm². That is under a true 1.5 mm², so keep 3/.029 on 6 A lighting circuits and off sockets. Seven strands make 2.98 mm², over a true 2.5 mm², which is why 7/.029 is the socket wire here.
Twenty-one coils is a lot of copper to take on trust. There are three checks you can do on a delivered coil without a laboratory, and we would rather you did them — on our coils or anyone's.
Count the strands. Strip 30 mm and count. 3/.029 has three strands, 7/.029 has seven. A conductor sold as 7/.029 with six strands is not 7/.029, whatever the drum says.
Measure one strand and do the arithmetic. A vernier caliper on a single strand should read 0.74 mm for a .029 code, 0.91 mm for .036, 1.32 mm for .052. Then area = strands × π/4 × diameter². Seven strands at 0.9144 mm give 4.60 mm², which is what 7/.036 should be. This is the check that catches an undersized conductor, and it takes two minutes.
Verify the length. A tape against a marked 10 m span, walked down the coil, is the definitive test. A faster screen is resistance: IEC 60228 caps 1.5 mm² class 2 copper at 12.1 Ω/km at 20°C, so 90 m should read no more than 12.1 × 0.090 = 1.09 Ω end to end, or about 2.2 Ω on a loop with the far end shorted. Be honest about what that tells you: the standard sets a maximum, real copper reads under it, and a low reading can mean a short coil or simply good copper. Resistance flags a problem; the tape settles it.
Confirm the coil length in writing before you order, from us or anyone else. We quote per metre, so the coil count on this page is a convenience conversion, not the unit of sale.
| 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, geyser | 4 mm² | 36 A | 11 mV/A/m | 20 A |
| Main earth | 6 mm² | 46 A | 7.3 mV/A/m | — |
| Meter to DB | 10 mm² | 63 A | 4.4 mV/A/m | 50 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.
Search the 5 marla house wiring cost and you will find totals for the same size of house that differ by several times over. The houses are not that different. The scopes are. One quote is the wire alone; the next adds conduit, boards and accessories; the third adds the electrician's labour. Almost none of them say which.
| Scope | What is in it | Who supplies it |
|---|---|---|
| A. Wire and cable only | The 21 coils, the 6 mm² earth conductor, the meter-to-DB main cable | Pilone Cables, factory-direct |
| B. A plus fittings | Conduit pipe, back boxes, switches, sockets, the 18-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 — a quote from last month is a different number this month. 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.
Nine coils of the 5 marla list. Seven stranded copper conductors measuring 3.0 mm², PVC insulated to 450/750 V, drawn on the Pilone line in Lahore for socket and kitchen circuits.
Prices track the daily copper rate. Send the coil list and your city for today's factory rate on the whole lot.
Also on this list: 3/.029 single core copper cable, 4mm single core copper cable, 6mm single core copper cable for the earth, and 10mm 2 core standard cable for the meter run.
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.