The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) developed the Building Life Cycle Cost (BLCC) Programs to provide computational support for the analysis of capital investments in buildings. They include BLCC, the Energy Escalation Rate Calculator, Handbook 135, and the Annual Supplement to Handbook 135.
BLCC5 Program
Register and download. BLCC 5.3-16 (for Windows or Mac OS X).
BLCC version 5.3-16 contains the following modules:
- FEMP Analysis,Energy Project
- Federal Analysis, Financed Project Office of Management and Budget Analysis
- MILCON Analysis, Energy Project
- MILCON Analysis, Energy Conservation Investment Program Project
- MILCON Analysis, Non-Energy Project
BLCC conducts economic analyses by evaluating the relative cost effectiveness of alternative buildings and building-related systems or components. Typically, BLCC is used to evaluate alternative designs that have higher initial costs but lower operating costs over the project life than the lowest-initial-cost design. It is especially useful for evaluating the costs and benefits of energy and water conservation and renewable energy projects.
The life cycle cost (LCC) of two or more alternative designs are computed and compared to determine which has the lowest LCC and is therefore more economical in the long run. BLCC also calculates comparative economic measures for alternative designs, including net savings, savings-to-investment ratio, adjusted internal rate of return, and years to payback.
- BLCC is programmed in Java with an XML file format.
- The user's guide is part of the BLCC Help system.
- If you are experiencing issues with BLCC, see the troubleshooting page.
Energy Escalation Rate Calculator (EERC)
EERC 2.0-16 (for Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux)
EERC computes an average annual escalation rate for a specified time period, which can be used as an escalation rate for contract payments in energy savings performance contracts and utility energy services contracts. Escalation rates can be computed based on the Energy Information Administration (EIA) energy price projections used for calculating the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) discount factors and on EIA projections adjusted by NIST for potential carbon pricing.
Handbook 135
Handbook 135, the Life Cycle Costing Manual for FEMP, explains in detail the principles of life cycle cost analysis and integrates them with FEMP criteria.
Annual Supplement to Handbook 135
Energy Price Indices and Discount Factors for Life Cycle Cost Analysis, Annual Supplement to Handbook 135, are embedded in the above software and available in this publication. The factors are calculated with the latest FEMP discount factors and energy price escalation rates for U.S. Census regions, rate types, and fuel types.
Download Encost16 the underlying EIA energy price projections file.