Building Life Cycle Cost Programs

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

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.

Energy Escalation Rate Calculator (EERC)

EERC Public URL: https://pages.nist.gov/eerc 

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.

To learn more about the Programs, please visit the Office of Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy BLCC website.