Fuel Reduction Cost Simulator
Overview
FRCS, the Fuel Reduction Cost Simulator, uses simulation to estimate the cost of forest
operations that are undertaken to reduce forest fuel loads by cutting and
removing trees for solid wood products or chips. It can also be used to estimate
the cost of collecting and chipping forest residues. The resulting “dirty chips”
might be used as feedstock for electrical power generation or for the production
of biofuels or other bio-based products.
FRCS is a spreadsheet application developed with Microsoft® Excel® 2002.
Its compatibility with spreadsheet software other than Microsoft Excel has
not been tested. FRCS has, however, been tested successfully with Excel
1997-2003 and with Excel 2007.
System and Software Requirements
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Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, Vista, or Windows 7
- Microsoft Excel 2002, 2003, or 2007
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Downloads
1. FRCS VARIANTS FOR DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE UNITED STATES (each is a single Microsoft® Excel®
workbook file; they vary in size from 1.54-1.66 MB). Note: These variants of FRCS were last updated
on 26 March 2010. If you are currently using an older version of FRCS, we suggest that you download
and use one of these latest versions.
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FRCS-North |
Intended for use in the Northeast and North-Central regions: Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana,
Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri,
Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania,
Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, and West Virginia
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FRCS-South |
Intended for use in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina,
Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia
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FRCS-West |
Intended for use in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico,
Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming
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2. DOCUMENTATION FOR FRCS
Documentation downloads are listed in the table below. Please note the following:
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Excel 2007 has some important security features
that differ from previous versions of Excel,
and if you are using that version you should read the Excel 2007 information sheet.
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If you want to use FRCS in batch processing mode,
please be sure to read the batch processing information sheet because the
data formats have changed from earlier versions of FRCS.
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You may wish to update the cost data used
internally by FRCS. The download versions have costs that were current as of December 2007.
The information note on updating costs tells you where cost data are located within FRCS and
provides suggestions on how to update the different elements. The two subsidiary files on
labor cost provide additional information on logging wages.
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For questions or assistance with FRCS, contact Jamie Barbour: jbarbour01 (at) fs.fed.us.
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