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ASTM E917-15

Historical Revision

Standard Practice for Measuring Life-Cycle Costs of Buildings and Building Systems


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1.1 This practice establishes a procedure for evaluating the life-cycle cost (LCC) of a building or building system and comparing the LCCs of alternative building designs or systems that satisfy the same functional requirements.

1.2 The LCC method measures, in present-value or annual-value terms, the sum of all relevant costs associated with owning and operating a building or building system over a specified time period.

1.3 The basic premise of the LCC method is that to an investor or decision maker all costs arising from an investment decision are potentially important to that decision, including future as well as present costs. Applied to buildings or building systems, the LCC encompasses all relevant costs over a designated study period, including the costs of designing, purchasing/leasing, constructing/installing, operating, maintaining, repairing, replacing, and disposing of a particular building design or system.

1.4 The values stated in inch-pound units are to be regarded as standard. The values given in parentheses are mathematical conversions to SI units that are provided for information only and are not considered standard.


5.1 LCC analysis is an economic method for evaluating a project or project alternatives over a designated study period. The method entails computing the LCC for alternative building designs or system specifications having the same purpose and then comparing them to determine which has the lowest LCC over the study period.

5.2 The LCC method is particularly suitable for determining whether the higher initial cost of a building or building system is economically justified by reductions in future costs (for example, operating, maintenance, repair, or replacement costs) when compared with an alternative that has a lower initial cost but higher future costs. If a building design or system specification has both a lower initial cost and lower future costs relative to an alternative, an LCC analysis is not needed to show that the former is the economically preferable choice.

5.3 If an investment project is not essential to the building operation (for example, replacement of existing single-pane windows with new double-pane windows), the project must be compared against the “do nothing” alternative (that is, keeping the single pane windows) in order to determine if it is cost effective. Typically the “do nothing” alternative entails no initial investment cost but has higher future costs than the proposed project.

SDO ASTM: ASTM International
Document Number E917
Publication Date Oct. 1, 2015
Language en - English
Page Count 23
Revision Level 15
Supercedes
Committee E06.81
Publish Date Document Id Type View
Sept. 1, 2017 E0917-17E01 Revision
Sept. 1, 2017 E0917-17 Revision
Oct. 1, 2015 E0917-15 Revision
Sept. 1, 2013 E0917-13 Revision
Oct. 1, 2005 E0917-05E01 Revision
Oct. 1, 2005 E0917-05 Revision
Oct. 10, 2002 E0917-02 Revision
Oct. 10, 1999 E0917-99 Revision
July 1, 2023 E0917-17R23 Reaffirmation
April 1, 2010 E0917-05R10 Reaffirmation