BLCC: The NIST "Building Life-Cycle Cost" Program, Version 4.3 User's Guide and Reference Manual.
BLCC: The NIST "Building Life-Cycle Cost" Program,
Version 4.3 User's Guide and Reference Manual.
(5907 K)
Petersen, S. R.
NISTIR 5185-3; 33 p. October 1995.
Sponsor:
Department of Energy, Washington, DC
Available from:
National Technical Information Service
(NTIS), Technology Administration, U.S. Department of
Commerce, Springfield, VA 22161.
Telephone:
1-800-553-6847 or 703-605-6000;
Fax: 703-605-6900.
Website: http://www.ntis.gov
Order number: PB96-199229
Keywords:
air pollution; emissions; manuals; computer programs;
life cycle cost; energy conservation; carbon dioxide;
sulfur dioxide; nitrous oxide
Abstract:
***Enclosed are two diskettes with the updated NIST LCC
software for 1998. Versions of the software will be
valid from April 1, 1998 to March 31, 1999. There were
no changes to the software, except for the updates of
the default discount rates and energy price escalation
rates for 1998.***
The NIST Building Life-Cycle Cost (BLCC) computer
program provides economic analysis of proposed capital
investments that are expected to reduce long-term
operating costs of buildings or building
systems/components. It is especially useful for
evaluating the costs and benefits of energy conservation
projects in buildings. Two or more alternative designs
can be evaluated to determine which has the lowest
life-cycle cost and therefore is most economical in the
long run. Economic measures, including net savings,
savings-to-investment ratio, adjusted internal rate of
return, and years to payback can be calculated for any
design alternative relative to the designated base case.
BLCC can be used for evaluating federal (including
Department of Defense), state, and local government
projects as well as projects in the private sector. It
complies with ASTM standards related to building
economics as well as Federal Energy Management Program
(FEMP) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
Circular A-94 guidelines for economic analysis of
federal building projects. While BLCC is primarily
intended for the economic evaluation of building
systems, it can be applied to a wide range of project
investments which are intended primarily to reduce
future operating-related costs. The "Quick Input"
program (QI) included with BLCC can be used to set up
multiple project alternatives for LCC analysis in a
single input file. While the range of input data is
somewhat limited, QI is sufficient for many simple LCC
problems and provides a new link to the DOE ASEAM 5.0
energy calculation program. QI can also be used to
generate input data files for BLCC when more
comprehensive analysis is required. BLCC and QI are
designed to run on an IBM-PC or compatible microcomputer
with approximately 640K of random access memory and a
hard disk or disk drive capble of handling high-density
diskettes. BLCC and QI are updated annually (on April
1) to include the current DOE energy price projections
and federal discount rates.
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899