Life Cycle Cost Analysis of Hvac System in Office Projects

LIFE CYCLE COST ANALYSIS OF HVAC SYSTEM IN OFFICE PROJECTS
DISSERTATION – II
Department of Building Engineering and Management
School of Planning and Architecture New Delhi
- Vashuka Ghritalahare
SPA/NS/BEM/860
INTRODUCTION
Energy is consistently reported as an essential resource for modern societies. The population
growth and lifestyle changes have been and still are increasing the energy demand and there
have been various economic (e.g., energy crisis in the 1970’s), environmental (e.g., pollution
from fossil fuels use) and social (e.g., armed conflicts over energy sources control/access)
impacts.
The energy consumed globally in buildings makes up the largest portion, accounting for 40%
of the total energy consumed worldwide (Gruber et al., 2015). This also corresponds to 38%
of the greenhouse gas emissions, reflecting the dimension of the issue both from an economic
and environmental perspectives. Considering that climate changes are forecasted to increase
extreme weather events, namely cold fronts and heat waves, the need for HVAC systems in
building will tend to increase in the future in order to keep the living standards.
Within the various components of a building, an HVAC system is becoming an increasingly
essential one. Nowadays, HVAC systems are present in any type of building, including
commercial, hotels, schools, offices, hospitals or households. These systems not only account
for the largest portion of the building energy consumption in most cases, but they can also
occupy a large space in some cases and have a high initial investment. Therefore, it is
important to have the correct size and design project for the specific needs to contribute to a
successful energy-efficient building.
This research work analyses the life cycle cost of HVAC systems and develop a decision
template to select the best suitable system based on the financial aspect of office projects.
Life cycle cost is cautiously described by the building and construction assets standard
ISO15686 as: “a technique which enables comparative cost assessments to be made over a
specified period of time, taking into account all relevant economic factors both in terms of
initial costs and future operational costs”.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Handbook 135, 1996 edition,
defines Life Cycle Cost (LCC) as “the total discounted dollar cost of owning, operating,
maintaining, and disposing of a building or a building system” over a period of time. Life
Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) is an economic evaluation technique that determines the total
cost of owning and operating a facility over period of time.
Life cycle costing, as the name suggests, is the total cost of a project during its lifetime. It
includes initial investment cost, operational cost, maintenance & repair cost, replacement cost
and residual value.
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Seminar – 1
1.1 RESEARCH GAP : There are researches on life cycle cost analysis of building
components and HVAC systems. However, these researches only focussed on common types
of HVAC system.
This study will be focussed on HVAC systems which are specifically and commonly used in
offices only.
Office buildings are one of the types of buildings where the energy consumption for heating
and cooling makes up a large fraction of the total. Considering the influence of thermal
comfort on productivity, the concentration of people and electronic equipment and the
number of hours that the building is occupied each day, HVAC systems are present in any
medium to large office buildings in India.
1.2 NEED : Value of money invested is base for making decisions. Value includes cost, but
studies indicate that many times, maintenance and repair cost is much higher than the initial
cost. Thus, decisions made on initial cost consideration are many times misleading. This
strengthens the need for taking into account all the incurred costs on any asset throughout its
life span.
HVAC systems consume almost 40% of total energy consumed by a building which is a
major part of the capital cost and O&M cost of any project. Improvement upon it, can make a
drastic reduction in energy cost. Therefore, it is critical to choose the best possible option
available to maximise the output in terms of performance and cost.
1.3 AIM : The research aims to analyse the life cycle cost of HVAC systems and develop a
decision template to select the best suitable system based on the financial aspect of office
projects.
1.4 OBJECTIVES :
1. To identify various components of HVAC system which contribute to the cost of
LCC.
2. To prepare a template for the calculation of LCC of HVAC system in offices
considering the estimated service life of each identified component for each system.
3. To find the LCC of different HVAC system used in various office projects using
above template.
4. To create a LCC calculation tool for the selection of best suitable HVAC system.
1.5 SCOPE : The study is limited to analysing different HVAC systems and will be focussed
on office buildings only.
1.6 OUTCOME : The outcome will be to create a LCC calculation tool for the selection of
best suitable HVAC system for office buildings.
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Seminar – 1
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