User-Friendly Life-Cycle Costing - The BLCC Procedure in an Easy-to-Use Spreadsheet

Sep 11, 2026

Life-Cycle Costing (LCC) analysis is used to identify cost-optimal building design solutions, yet it often lacks widespread confidence despite mandated federal use. Under FEMP direction, NIST standardized LCC nomenclature and procedures and introduced BLCC to apply the FEMP/NIST conventions automatically. Many users still find BLCC’s conventional “black box” workflow uncomfortable. This paper presents a thorough BLCC implementation in Excel—User-Friendly Life-Cycle Costing—using a transparent “glass box” spreadsheet approach that shows intermediate results and builds user confidence.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPresentations

FormatPDF

Pages12

Reading Time4 min

AccessFree to download

Summary

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction and Background

Federal requirements and standardized procedures

BLCC as the central program

Life-Cycle Cost Basic Concepts

Trade-off between first cost and operating cost

Interpreting cost curves and preferred choices

"User Friendly"Building Life-Cycle Costing a spreadsheet implementation of BLCC "User-Friendly" Life-Cycle Costing: The BLCC Procedure in an Easy-to-Use Spreadsheet Marlin S. Addison M. S. Addison and Associates Tempe, Arizona [marlin.addison@doe2.com](marlin.addison@doe2.com) SUMMARY This paper describes an Excel spreadsheet implementation of BLCC, called User-Friendly Life-Cycle Costing. Although the life-cycle cost formulas used in BLCC are widely published and recognized, some BLCC users describe BLCC's conventional procedure of first collecting user input, then "going away" to calculate results, as a familiar but uncomfortable "black box"procedure, i.e., does not display intermediate results. Spreadsheet users express greater confidence using the user-friendly "glass box"spreadsheet implementation of BLCC reported here. The User-Friendly Life-Cycle Costing spreadsheet is available for free download in Excel Office95 and Office 97 formats at [http://www.doe2.com](http://www.doe2.com). ABSTRACT The Life-Cycle Costing (LCC) analysis method is recognized to reliably identify cost optimal building design solutions yet it is not widely used with confidence, even within the federal sector where its use is mandated (10 CFR 436) . At the direction of the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), and drawing on standards work by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has rendered a valuable service to the buildings industry at large by developing a recommended life-cycle costing procedure. NIST's LCC procedures standardize both nomenclature and conventions so that the entire buildings industry can speak one"language" when using LCC analysis. The centerpiece to NIST's LCC contributions is a computer program called BLCC, the Building Life-Cycle Cost Program, which automatically applies the FEMP/NIST LCC conventionsin LCC analyses. Despite BLCC's contribution to the buildings industry's use of LCC methods, many BLCC users report feeling uncomfortable with a"black box" procedure that collects user inputs, then reports LCC results. This paper describes an alternative: a thorough implementation ofBLCC in an Excel spreadsheet format, User-Friendly Life-Cycle Costing. Users already familiar with spreadsheet programs, e.g., Excel, Lotus, QuatroPro, report greater confidence using this "glass box" spreadsheet implementation of BLCC. The User-Friendly Life-Cycle Costing spreadsheet is available for free download in Excel Office95 and Office 97 formats at [http://www.doe2.com](http://www.doe2.com). KEYWORDS Life-Cycle Costing, BLCC, Simplified Life-Cycle Costing INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND The Life-Cycle Costing (LCC) analysis method is recognized to reliably identify cost optimal building design solutions. The Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has codified the rules for performing LCC analysis of investments for energy and water conservation and renewable energy resource projects in the Code of Federal Regulations, 10 CFR 436, Subpart A,"Methodology and Procedures for Life-Cycle Cost Analysis" [1]. These rules apply to both new and existing buildings owned or leased by the Federal Government. These economic evaluations are required by the Federal Energy Management Improvement Act of 1988 (Public Law 100-6 15) and the National Energy Conservation Policy Act (NECPA) of 1978 (P.L. 95-6 19) . More recently, these requirements have been renewed in Executive Order 13123 [2], "Greening the Government through Efficient Energy Management", issued on 3 June 1999 (available online) . At the direction of FEMP, and drawing on standards work by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) [3], the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed standardized LCC nomenclature and conventions so that the entire buildings industry can speak one "language" when using LCC analysis.

FAQs

Why is Life-Cycle Costing important for building design decisions?

Life-Cycle Costing reliably helps identify cost-optimal building design solutions by evaluating costs over a building’s life.

What does BLCC do in the LCC process?

BLCC applies the standardized FEMP/NIST LCC conventions automatically, turning user inputs into LCC results.

What problem does the “User-Friendly Life-Cycle Costing” spreadsheet address?

It replaces the conventional “black box” workflow with a “glass box” Excel spreadsheet implementation that increases user confidence by making the procedure more transparent.

Sep 11, 2026

Uploaded by Arica Lee