|
Web-based Tool Analyzes Life-Cycle Costs Gauging the Long-term Performance of Intelligent Building Technologies
May, 2008
By Thomas M. Keel
Life-cycle costing is a science-based measurement of a project's impact throughout its life. It is an amalgamation of first costs, training costs, operation and maintenance costs, service agreement costs, upgrade/retrofit costs, and may include disposal/deconstruction costs, to give involved parties a realistic understanding of true return on investment (ROI) and return on equity (ROE).
The Continental Automated Buildings Association (CABA), in partnership with the Reed Construction Data company, RSMeans, has launched an industry-wide test of a life-cycle cost calculator. This emerges from a process begun in 2004 when CABA undertook an industry-wide survey to aid in the development of a parametric model that would analyze the life-cycle costs of buildings.
At that time, CABA developed the survey based upon a white paper that argued that life-cycle costing methodology would allow owners and operators to estimate the total cost benefit of deploying integrated and intelligent building technologies over the lifespan of an entire building. Driven by CABA's Intelligent & Integrated Buildings Council, industry initiatives continued through 2005 to develop methods to evaluate intelligent and integrated building systems in order to actually monitor operating and maintenance costs and verify holistic cost reductions. An in-depth assessment of best practices for buildings with full or partial building control integration followed.
The assessment found that owners were primarily concerned with first costs and building appearance, as well as operating costs. The reality, however, is that over a 30-year period, initial building costs account for only 2% of total building costs, while operations and maintenance costs equal 6% and personnel costs equal 92%.
CABA's study conclusively found that office buildings of 50,000 to 100,000 square feet demonstrated the best return-on-investment for integrated systems, but that there was a lack of tools to evaluate the overall life-cycle costs of implementation. As a consequence, CABA undertook the development of a life-cycle analysis tool with RSMeans to provide detailed cost models and associated life-cycle costs assessments based upon specific geographic location factors.
The resulting Web-based tool enables building owners, architects, designers, contractors, and others within the building system integration industry to obtain unbiased, third party confirmation of the life-cycle costs of an integrated, intelligent, automated building, as compared to buildings that are either not automated or not integrated.
The tool makes extensive use of databases to calculate initial construction costs, operational costs and efficiencies from the use of intelligent building automation systems. It also includes usage guides from the U.S. Department of Energy to calculate average energy costs.
"RSMeans has gathered all of CABA's research, combined it with their experience in the building industry and their vast database of square-foot costs, and have produced an online software tool that will be extremely beneficial to industry," observes Ronald J. Zimmer, CABA President & CEO.
"Users of this tool will be able to look at the different degrees of intelligence and integration of a variety of automated building systems. The final calculated results created by the tool will provide a report outlining assembly costs and a 10-year costs analysis for return on investment applicable to fully intelligent and integrated automated building controls," explains Tim Duggan, Senior Consultant with RSMeans Business Solutions.
For more information, see the web site at www.caba.org/lifecycle.
The preceding article is excerpted from iHomes & Buildings, Spring 2008, a publication of the Continental Automated Buildings Association.
|