The Building Life-Cycle Cost computer program BLCC5, and its predecessor BLCC4, were developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) under the sponsorship of the Federal Energy Management Program of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE/FEMP). The BLCC programs have been widely used since the 1970's to evaluate building-related energy and water conservation projects and renewable energy projects according to 10 CFR436 and OMB Circular A-94. BLCC5 is the windowed version of the DOS-based BLCC4. BLCC 5.3 contains six modules, as follows:
The program calculates lowest life-cycle cost (LCC) as well as supplementary measures such as Net Savings (NS), Savings-to-Investment Ratio (SIR), Adjusted Internal Rate of Return (AIRR), Simple Payback (SPB) and Discounted Payback (DPB). LCC estimates and supplementary measures are calculated in present-value dollars, that is, all future costs are discounted to a present value as of the base date and summed to arrive at the total life-cycle cost of a project alternative. LCC estimates are also reported as annualized costs where the entire stream of costs over the study period is "levelized" to an equal annual amount, including an "interest" charge represented by the discount rate.
The input data in the ECIP (Energy Conservation Investment Program) module are entered as differences between a base case and an energy-saving alternative.
In all of the modules, the program also calculates estimates of energy savings in physical units as well as emissions reductions (CO2, SO2, NOx).