Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Whole life costs of building'

Office retrofit building projects have become a subject of increased attention among building researchers in the United Kingdom, and in many economically advanced nations. Existing whole-life costing models have however, not proven to be robust enough to deal with these retrofit building scenarios. There is a growing body of evidence that conceptual modifications in the mechanics of whole-life cost modelling, could facilitate improvements in the long-term cost assessment of buildings. Recent research has made a case for the existence of revocability and disruption, in the appraisal of retrofit building investments. Revocability, connotes the potential for variability, in the future cost projections of a building over its estimated life. Disruption relates to the diminished building use, or unusability, over a period of implementing a retrofit initiative. Existing whole-life cost models have however, not recognised the implications of revocability and disruption in their framework. This study conducts an investigation into the whole-life costing of office retrofit building projects, and develops a Fuzzy New-Generation Whole-life Costing approach. Two office retrofit building projects are adopted, to appraise the identified issues in the whole-life costing framework. A number of building configuration permutations (BCPs) constituting different retrofit options, are developed in both projects. The potential implication of revocability and disruption, are evaluated based on probability and fuzzy logic principles respectively. Sensitivity analysis is applied to discount rate assumptions over the estimated lives, of the projects considered. The Spearman's rank correlation coefficient is used in analysing the ranking results of selected projects. This provided an assessment of the relative preference of BCPs in the projects. Results from the case studies show 1) disruption issues account for up to 12% of initial capital costs; 2) revocability accounts for up to 35% of initial capital cost, over a 20-year life; up to 119%, over a 60-year life; 3) up to 2% underestimation in the whole-life cost, over a 20-year life; and up to 45% underestimation, over a 60-year period, in the SPACE project; 4) up to 9% underestimation in the whole-life cost, over a 20-year life; and up to 53% underestimation, over a 60-year life, in the MS project.

The theoretical part deals at the beginning with evaluation of effectiveness of the project, as well as with the information about individual stages of the life cycle of the building, wear and tear of the buildings, lifetime of the elements and whole life costs of the building that are of particular interest to the investor. In conclusion, there are mentioned wastes and emissions. The thesis is completed by a case study of the family house where the whole life costs of the building life cycle are solved.

Els edificis d’energia neta poden ser entesos com a edificis, que durant un temps determinat generen tanta energia com consumeixen. Ja sigui des del punt de vista de l’oferta o el consum, la disponibilitat d’energia està relacionada amb alguns aspectes bàsics, com ara la font (s), la conversió, la distribució, l’ús, el malbaratament, l’optimització, l’eficiència i l’autonomia. Aquests temes revelen la complexitat del tema de l'energia i justifiquen l'atenció especial que li dóna la comunitat acadèmica. Per obtenir resultats tangibles en l'anàlisi d'aquests sistemes, en el nostre estudi ens centrem en la modelització i optimització de solucions energètiques aplicades a edificis o sistemes similars. D'altra banda, el període de temps dels objectes analitzats es va estendre fins al seu període de cicle de vida previst. Es van establir els objectius principals com: - Verificar i analitzar l’estat de la tecnologia de les energies renovables per a edificis i actius construïts i l’aplicabilitat de l’anàlisi de costos del cicle de vida a aquests temes; - Configurar models reproductibles d’edificis i les seves principals càrregues elèctriques, mitjançant eines d’enginyeria de processos assistits per ordinador, per procedir a simulacions i optimització, considerant-se com a font d’energia primària l’energia solar; - Quantificar, utilitzant estudis de casos reals i hipotètics, els beneficis de les solucions proposades, amb l'objectiu de realitzar tota l'avaluació de la sostenibilitat de la vida mitjançant la reducció de tot el cost del cicle de vida;
Los edificios de energía de red cero pueden entenderse como edificios, que durante un tiempo dado generan tanta energía como consumen. O bien, desde el punto de vista del suministro o el consumo, la disponibilidad de energía está relacionada con algunos problemas básicos, como las fuentes, la conversión, la distribución, la utilización, el desperdicio, la optimización, la eficiencia y la autonomía. Estos problemas revelan la complejidad del tema de la energía y justifican la atención especial que le presta la comunidad académica. Para obtener resultados tangibles en el análisis de estos sistemas, en nuestro estudio nos centramos en el modelado y la optimización de soluciones energéticas aplicadas a edificios o sistemas similares. Por otro lado, el período de tiempo de los objetos analizados se extendió a su período de ciclo de vida esperado. Los objetivos principales se establecieron como: - Verificar y analizar el estado de la técnica de las soluciones de energía renovable para edificios y activos construidos y la aplicabilidad del análisis de costos de ciclo de vida a estas cuestiones; - Configure modelos reproducibles de edificios y sus principales cargas eléctricas, a través de herramientas de Ingeniería de Procesos Asistidos por Computadora, para proceder a simulaciones y optimización, considerando como fuente de energía primaria la energía solar;
Net-zero energy buildings can be understood as buildings, that for a given time, generate as much energy as they consume. Either, from the point of view of supply or consumption, energy availability is related to some basic issues such as source (s), conversion, distribution, utilization, waste, optimization, efficiency and autonomy. These issues reveal the complexity of the subject of energy and justify the special attention given to it by the academic community. To obtain tangible results in the analysis of these systems, in our study we focus on the modelling and optimization of energy solutions applied to buildings or similar systems. On the other hand, the time frame of the analysed objects was extended to their expected life cycle period. The main objectives were stablished as: - Verify and analyse the state-of-the-art of renewable energy solutions for buildings and constructed assets and the applicability of life cycle costing analysis to these issues; - Configure reproducible models of buildings and their main electrical loads, via Computer Aided Process Engineering tools, to proceed simulations and optimization, considering as primary energy source solar energy; - Quantify, using real-life and hypothetical case studies, the benefits of the proposed solutions, aiming the whole life sustainability assessment through the reduction of the whole life cycle costing; and - Guarantee the reproducibility of the models and main general results of this study and make them public, to contribute with their applicability and further researches.

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2018.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references.
In order to design buildings with reduced environmental impacts, it is important to analyze and compare a variety of design alternatives starting at early stages of the design process. This dissertation discusses the development of a probabilistic life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology for single-family residential buildings called the Building Attribute to Impact Algorithm (BAIA), which was created to reduce the amount of time and detail required to conduct LCAs, thus facilitating their use for early design exploration. Within BAIA, the building geometry, systems, occupant behavior, and materials are defined by flexible attributes, with options organized into hierarchies representing different levels of precision or under-specification. Parametric models based on these attributes provide estimates of the material quantities and use-phase energy consumption of the building, and Monte Carlo simulation is used to calculate the variability in predicted impacts and costs resulting from under-specified attributes. Two design guidance methods are explored: sequential specification - in which influential attributes are iteratively identified and specified - and genetic optimization. The latter is found to be more efficient because it identifies solutions with lower impacts and costs while maintaining a higher degree of flexibility in the probabilistic design, as measured by information entropy. In a genetically optimized design, quasi-optimum design solutions with 75% of the optimal reduction of costs and impacts are shown to provide a 40% increase in flexibility over the optimized design. These quasi-optimum solutions are analyzed to identify which attributes are flexible vs. critical (having quasi-optimum ranges that are greater than or less than half of their initial under-specified ranges, respectively). Twelve cases are studied representing different locations, analysis periods, uncertainty in energy-related impacts, and weightings of costs vs. impacts in the optimization objective. Of the geometrical attributes, the building aspect ratio and window-to-wall ratios are critical, while seven others (including orientation, number of stories, and window overhangs) are flexible in all cases. Most occupant-related attributes (including window shading and natural ventilation) are also flexible in all cases. Among the systems-related attributes, the mini-split heat pump efficiency, air leakage, and ratio of LED lighting fixtures are critical in most or all cases.
by Joshua C. Hester.
Ph. D.

This thesis proposes that a baggage handling system (BHS) environment can be defined and coupled to a whole life cycle cost (WLCC NPV) model. The results from specific experiments using the model can be used as the basis by which to commercially compare BHS flight build types of any capacity, and BHS geographical location. The model examined the three flight build types(i): Fully automatic build2; (ii) Semi-automatic build, and(iii); Manual build. The model has the ability to calculate a bag flow busy hour rate, and to replicate the baggage flow characteristics observed within real BHS operations. Whole life cycle costs (WLCC NPV) results are produced, and these form the basis by which the comparison of BHS types is made. An overall WLCC NPV scatter diagram was produced, which is a summation of each of the test sensitivities. The assumptions and limitations of the analysis are provided. It is proposed that the results, conclusions and recommendations shall be of value to airports, airlines, and design consultants.

Public buildings and other public facilities are essential for the functioning and quality of life in modern societies, but they also frequently have a significant negative impact on the natural environment. Public agencies, with their large portfolios of facilities, have faced considerable challenges in recent years in minimizing their negative environmental impacts and energy consumption and coping with shortages of financial capital to invest in new facilities and operate and maintain existing ones, while still meeting their mission goals. These range from the need to provide a quality workplace for their staff to providing a public service and long term benefits to the public. The concept of green building has emerged as a set of objectives and practices designed to reduce negative environment impacts and other challenges while enhancing the functionality of built facilities. However, the prevailing belief related to implementing green building is that incorporating Green Building Strategies and Technologies (GBSTs) increases the initial cost of constructing a facility while potentially reducing its life cycle costs. Thus, this research deals with optimizing the design of individual facilities to balance the initial cost investment for GBSTs versus their potential Life Cycle Cost (LCC) savings without the need to conduct detailed life cycle cost analysis during the early capital planning and budget phases in public sector projects. The purpose of this study is to develop an approach for modeling the general relationship between investments in initial costs versus savings in LCCs involved in implementing green building strategies in public capital projects. To address the research question, this study developed multiple regression models to identify the relationships between GBSTs and their initial cost premiums, operating costs, and LCCs. The multiple regression models include dummy variables because this is a convenient way of applying a single regression equation to represent several nominal variables, which here consist of initial, operating, maintenance, and repair and replacement costs, and ordinal variables, which in this case are the GBST alternatives considered. These new regression models can be used to identify the relationship between GBST alternatives, initial cost premiums, annual operating costs and LCC in the earliest stage of a project, when public agencies are at the capital planning and budgeting stages of facility development, without necessarily needing to know the precise details of design and implementation for a particular building. In addition, this study also proposes and tests a method to generate all the necessary cost data based on building performance models and industry accepted standard cost data. This statistical approach can easily be extended to accommodate additional GBSTs that were not included in this study to identify the relationship between their initial cost premium and their potential LCC saving at the earliest stage of facility development. In addition, this approach will be a useful tool for other institutional facility owners who manage large facility portfolios with significant annual facility investments and over time should help them minimize the environmental impacts caused by their facilities.
Ph. D.

Thesis (M.S.)--Air Force Institute of Technology, 2007.
AFIT/GCS/ENV/07-M8. "March 2007." Title from title page of PDF file ; viewed: Nov. 28, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 47-50).

The aim of this research is to explore the sustainability of the existing residential buildings and to analyse how sustainability can be assessed if sustainable materials and technologies would be used. The main objectives are concentrated in providing a general knowledge of sustainability and to examine how much sustainable the residential buildings are. To analyze the various technologies and materials that can be used in order to reduce the climate-altering emissions, to improve energy efficiency, to reduce costs and to improve the living conditions. Providing knowledge and tools for the sustainable re-design of existing buildings, which will be addressed to environmental, technical, economic and social feasibility of proposed measures, and to energy control. For the analysis, different case studies in different countries will be studied and then a life-cycle approach will be applied to a theoretical residential building, and all the relevant impact categories for the selected type of buildings will be taken into account. In order to analyze the sustainability of the building, a qualitative research will be done using literature sources, international database, journal articles, technical and official reports from the government or group researchers patented and SimaPro software. Materials and dimensions will be defined and will be studied the integrated energy performance, CO2 emissions, global warming, acoustic comfort, thermal comfort, indoor environmental quality for existing residential building structures. All these steps will be taken in order to allow an LCA analysis of the materials of the residential buildings and to define when can be considered that the system has actually been sustained.

The aim of this thesis is to introduce the given topic " Cost analysis of the building and their coverage" and to show an analyze of selected the life cycle phases on a specific example. The paper also solved ways of financing options especially financing via grants. At the end of work I deal with the recommendations of choosing a suitable grant title for the financing of new construction or reconstruction nursery schools.

Thesis "Facility management - efficient administration buildings" is focused on building objects and benefit for the use of facility management services. The work tries to explain what is facility management, who provide it in the Czech Republic and how it contributes to savings. Mentioned are also information technology used in facility management, because without those are nowadays almost any industry can do. The first part is also focused on the construction, its life cycle and associated costs. Defined is also building life cycle in the context of facility management, outsourcing, as an external facility management services and neglected nor legislation for facility management.

Diploma thesis deals with comparing of current awards by Classification of building structures and works and awards by Functional parts. It is possible to calculate Building life cycle costs by Functional parts. This is definately the advantage of the system because the calculation cannot be done by Classification of building structures and works. A new law on public procurement deals with Building life cycle costs as an evaluation criterion. So it is recommended to use Functional parts awards. The other goal of the thesis is to find bridges between Functional parts and the issue of BIM. BIM is a trend of global construction industry.

The diploma thesis analyzes detached house created in BIM software. In the practical part was modeled BIM model, which was attributed the Information. Of the exported data was created budget and calculated total cost of building. The part of this work is calculate life-cycle cost and analysis of the most costies parts. The main result of this work is the demonstrace private investors and public procurement the advantages of BIM attitute to projects, Also calculate the price of building and life cycle costs in the studies BIM model can help investor to show how much they will cost of building without investor didn´t invest too much project funds and thus could reconsider the rejection or modification project.

The diploma thesis purpose is to choose optimal structure of the modernisation of slab block flat roof, according to building life cycle coast minimalisation. Based on the theoretical knowledge, the design of the stack was made in different phases and based on the building life cycle cost, considering the decreasing value of money over time. The selection of the optimal solution followed, taking account the specific conditions of the given scope of realization and the specific object. The choice is justified by the related analysis of key items.

För byggnader har drift- och underhållskostnader ofta större ekonomiska konsekvenser än den initiala investeringen och livscykelkostnader (LCC) har i upphandlingslagstiftningen lyfts fram som ett sätt att verka för hållbar upphandling. Med tanke på dessa omständigheter bör det vara intressant för offentliga fastighetsägare att tillämpa arbetssätt där de tidigt i projekten kan överskåda de långsiktiga ekonomiska konsekvenserna av deras val genom att analyser LCC. Genom att analysera textinnehållet i upphandlingsdokument har målet med det här examensarbetet varit att söka svar på frågan om hur offentliga fastighetsägare formulerar sina krav, jämförelse mellan anbud respektive uppdragsbeskrivning vad gäller LCC när de upphandlar projekterande konsulter. Undersökningen visade att det fanns ett antal upphandlingar där LCC-relaterade formuleringar fanns men omfattningen är begränsad och detaljerna kring varför och hur LCC-analyserna skulle göras är få. Det var också ett fåtal av de undersökta organisationerna som hade sådana formuleringar. Vidare visade undersökningen att krav på kompetens och arbetssätt kopplat till LCC helt saknades och att jämförelse mellan anbud endast i ett fall vägde in livscykelaspekter. Detta får till följd att anbudsgivarna saknar incitament att utveckla sina tjänster vad gäller LCC eftersom att det inte skulle ge dem några konkurrensfördelar när offentliga fastighetsägare genomför upphandlingar. Undersökningen visar dock på att en ambition fanns om att uppdragen skulle resultera i kostnadseffektiva och hållbara byggnader men det fanns i många fall ingen beskrivning om hur detta skulle uppnås. Slutsatsen som drogs av undersökningen är att den ekonomiska hållbarheten och den långsiktiga ekonomiska förutsägbarheten inte prioriterades högt men att det finns flera sätt som detta kan utvecklas på. Detta antingen genom att de offentliga fastighetsägarna bestämmer sig för när, varför och hur LCC-analyser ska genomföras under fastighetsprojektens tidiga skeden så att projekteringen kan styras av dessa analyser. Alternativt kan de implementera arbetssätt där de upphandlar fastighetsprojekt i ett tidigare skede och utvärdera vilket anbud som är de mest fördelaktiga genom att jämföra de olika förslagens LCC. Båda dessa förändringar skulle bidra till mer hållbara upphandlingar.
The running and maintenance costs of buildings often have a larger economic impact than the initial investment and Life-cycle costs (LCC) has been highlighted as a means of achieving sustainable procurement. Because of these circumstances it should be of interest to public property owners to adopt procedures where they can foresee the long-term economic impact of choices in the early stages of their projects by analyzing LCC. By analyzing the textual content of procurement documents, this degree project tried answering the question of how public property owners phrased their requirements, comparison between tenders and assignment conditions with regards to LCC when procuring design consultants. The survey showed that a number of the procurements had LCC related texts in the procurement documents but the extent of this was limited and the details about why and how the LCC analysis are supposed to be conducted were scarce. The number of organizations which had these texts where few. The survey also showed that there were no requirements regarding competence and procedures relating to LCC and that a comparison of tenders relating to life-cycle aspects only was applied in one procurement procedure. This leads to a lack of incentive for the tendering consultants to develop their services in regards to LCC because that would not give them any advantage in the competition for public property owner contracts. In contrast, there was an apparent ambition of designing cost effective and sustainable buildings in these contracts but there were in many of the cases no description of how this was to be achieved. The conclusion that was drawn from the survey was that the economic sustainability and the long-term economic predictability was not highly prioritized but there are a number of ways in which this can be developed. This can be achieved by the public property owners either by deciding when, why and how LCC analysis are to be conducted in the early stages of property projects so that the design is guided by these analysis. Another option is to implement early stage project procurement where the most advantageous tender is decided by comparing LCC. Both of these changes would contribute to more sustainable procurements.

The aim of this thesis is to introduce the given topic "Construction cost over the life cycle of the building" and to show the overview of the development of the cost and price data on a specific example. The thesis is mainly focused on the valuation of the building in its phases. The theoretical part includes an elaboration of the life cycles of the building into various stages based on available information and documents, such as the budget of the building, operating expenses and real estate valuation issues.

Thesis "Price of construction according to future user point of view" is focused on the user's possibilities of the influence of the building value associated with the leife cycle. In the thesis explains what is facility management and what is it regarded to and life cycle of the building. On the example of building a house techniques are utilized facility management. Designed there are four deigned variants for which are calculated itemized budgets, the energy consumption of the building and other cost of life cycle of the building. At the end of thw work there are these variants compared and the result implies which one is the most suitable for a future user.

Doctoral thesis Life cycle cost model of an apartment building includes the process of modeling, starting with the theoretical definition and ending up with testing it for practical usage, the error measurement and its recalling abilities. The aim is to construct a model for simulating the life cycle costs of an apartment building during the phase of purchasing it followed with the simulation of life cycle costs having the conditions defined in advance. The method of the model construction shall be found in stating an appropriate representative, setting the entrance parameters and defining the condition under which it is supposed to work. The last step is to test the created model in order to find possible mistakes. Mathematically-statistical methods shall be used for setting the model. Another researching method comprises of creating several exemplary studies which shall correct the costs model and expand its applicability.

The thesis discusses the operating costs and the possibilities for their optimization. Specifically, it focuses on one of the greatest possible operating costs and it's heating costs. In the first part of the thesis are defined in general expenses, the price and the production, operating costs, optimization of these costs, life cycle of buildings and technological methods to improve the thermal and technical properties of the object. Finally, the theoretical part describes the terms for calculating the energy performance of the building and the payback period, which evaluates the effectiveness of investments. The practical part is assessed according to specific building energy performance, and especially in terms of its demand for heating. The building is designed for six variants of insulation, which is again judged on their energy performance. Subsequently these measures for better thermal insulating properties of the object assessed according to their cost efficiency and return on investment of individual variants.

Thesis (MEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2014.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The construction industry is a competitive market and contractors need to keep up-to-date with new construction methods and technologies. Project teams in South Africa are required to make decisions during the early stages of construction projects. These decisions often need to be made in a short time period, and include the decision between various construction methods, such as the decision between in-situ concrete construction and hybrid concrete construction. Hybrid concrete construction is a combination of pre-fabricated concrete and cast in-situ concrete to obtain the supreme benefits of their different construction qualities. This method of construction is ultimately used to achieve faster, and occasionally, more cost effective construction. Hybrid concrete construction, today, is a well-known term in the construction industry and is widely used in the UK and other developed countries. However, the use thereof is limited in South Africa, and in-situ concrete construction remains the conventional method of construction. Possible reasons for the limited use of hybrid concrete construction are investigated in this study. With the intent of improving the construction industry of South Africa, guidelines are provided to assist project teams in a decision between in-situ concrete construction and hybrid concrete construction. The decision between construction methods is based on many factors, such as project time, cost, quality, safety, environmental performance, socio-economic aspects (labour) and client satisfaction. Project time and cost are, however, the most important of these factors. It is stated that the structure of a building represents typically only 10 % of the construction cost, however, the choice of construction method and material can have significant effects on the cost of other elements throughout the life cycle of construction projects. It is therefore important to measure the whole life cycle cost when deciding between construction methods, such as in-situ concrete construction and hybrid concrete construction. The aim of this study is to identify and investigate the factors that influence project time and cost, throughout the life cycle of construction projects, and to provide a framework that can assist project teams in their decision between in-situ concrete construction and hybrid concrete construction in South Africa. The decision between these two construction methods is influenced by a vast number of variables that may be difficult to quantify. The framework therefore consists of qualitative information that can assist project teams in their decision. The framework provided in this study includes the factors that have an influence on the time and cost for a decision between in-situ concrete construction and hybrid concrete construction. These factors are identified for the three primary phases in the life cycle of construction projects. These phases are the design phase, the construction phase and the maintenance phase.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die konstruksiebedryf is 'n kompiterende mark en kontrakteurs moet op datum bly met nuwe konstruksie metodes en tegnologieë. In Suid-Afrika word daar van projek spanne vereis om vinnige besluite gedurende vroeë stadiums van 'n projek te neem. Hierdie besluite moet dikwels in 'n kort tydperk geneem word, en sluit die besluit tussen verskillende konstruksie metodes in, byvoorbeeld die besluit tussen in-situ en hibriede beton konstruksie. Hibriede beton konstruksie (HBK) is 'n kombinasie van in-situ en voorafvervaardigde beton elemente. HBK word in die algemeen gebruik om te baat uit 'n vinniger konstruksie tydperk, en kan soms ook ‘n meer koste-effektiewe metode van konstruksie wees. HBK word gesien as 'n bekende term in die konstruksiebedryf en word veral toegepas in ontwikkelde lande soos die VSA, Japan en Engeland. Die toepassing daarvan in Suid-Afrika is egter beperk. In Suid-Afrika word in-situ beton konstruksie nog steeds die meeste gebruik en staan dus bekend as die mees algemene metode van konstruksie. Hierdie studie ondersoek moontlike redes vir die beperkte gebruik van HBK in Suid-Afrika. Met die oog op 'n verbeterde konstruksiebedryf in Suid-Afrika, word rigylyne voorsien, wat projek spanne kan gebruik vir 'n besluit tussen in-situ en hibriede beton konstruksie. Daar is verskeie faktore wat 'n rol speel in die besluit tussen twee konstruksie metodes. Hierdie faktore sluit in, die tyd, koste, kwaliteit, veilighed, omgewings impak, sosio-ekonomiese aspekte (soos arbeid) en kliënt tevredenheid, van 'n projek. Tyd en koste is egter die belangrikste van hierdie faktore. Die metode waarvolgens 'n struktuur gebou word kan 'n beduidende uitwerking op die koste van ander elemente in die lewensiklus van 'n konstruksie projek hê. Dit is gevolglik belangrik om die hele lewensiklus koste in ag te neem wanneer daar besluit moet word tussen verskeie konstruksie metodes, soos in-situ en hibriede beton konstruksie. Die doel van hierdie studie is gevolglik om die faktore wat 'n invloed het op die tyd en lewensiklus koste van konstruksie projekte te identifiesieer. Hierdie faktore word dan gebruik om 'n raamwerk voor te stel. Projek spanne kan hierdie raamwerk gebruik as 'n riglyn om te besluit tussen in-situ en hibriede beton konstruksie. Die besluit tussen hierdie twee konstruksie metodes is afhanklik van 'n groot aantal veranderlikes, wat moeilik is om te kwantifiseer. Die raamwerk bestaan dus uit kwalitatiewe inligting wat projek spanne kan gebruik om 'n ingeligte besluit te neem oor in-situ en hibriede beton konstruksie. Die raamwerk wat in hierdie studie voorgestel word sluit dus die faktore in wat 'n invloed het op die tyd en koste vir 'n besluit tussen in-situ en hibriede beton konstruksie. Hierdie faktore is geïdentifiseer vir die drie primêre fases in die lewensiklus van 'n konstruksie projek. Hierdie fases is die ontwerp fase, die konstruksie fase en die onderhoud fase.

This thesis treats about evaluation of construction in the operating phase and in the implementing phase of the life cycle, too. The thesis is e.g. about theoretical and practical budgeting of building object, real estate evaluation and implementing costs of concrete object. The main aim of this thesis is compilation of price concrete object with the help of budget and valuation by methods for real estate evaluation. In this thesis is done the valuation of object in the actual price level and in the price level of 1976. The price and the material development is illustrated between these ages, too. The real operating costs of object and their development and comparing with average wages are illustrated since 1980 until today.

This thesis deals with the life-cycle cost of construction project. In the theoretical part the life cycle of buildings associated with the construction projects and each construction costs. The practical part is described the construction of 18 housing units in the village Zbýšov during the whole life cycle of the building. There are cost items defined in the development of the building from its beginning to its expected closure phase. In conclusion, the costs are discussed in more detail, analyzed and compared to a likewise a model project.

Rainwater harvesting (RWH) can be used to reduce the demand for potable mains water. At the single-building scale, previous research has focused on water-saving potential, while financial assessment has either been omitted or considered in an ad hoc manner. This paper reports on the application of a more rigorous financial analysis of domestic RWH systems than had been conducted previously. Whole life costing was selected as the most appropriate financial assessment technique. A total of 3840 domestic system configurations were assessed at a daily time step, taking into account various stakeholder perspectives and future cost scenarios. In each case, it was found that harvesting rainwater was significantly less cost effective than relying solely on mains-only water. The domestic RWH systems generally resulted in financial losses approximately equal to their capital costs. Without significant financial support, domestic RWH is unlikely to be cost effective for all reasonably foreseeable scenarios.

abstract: Building Envelope includes walls, roofs and openings, which react to the outdoor environmental condition. Today, with the increasing use of glass in building envelope, the energy usage of the buildings is increasing, especially in the offices and commercial buildings. Use of right glass type and control triggers helps to optimize the energy use, by tradeoff between optical and thermal properties. The part of the research looks at the different control triggers and its range that governs the use of electrochromic glass to regulate the energy usage in building. All different control trigger that can be possibly used for regulating the clear and tint state of glass were analyzed with most appropriate range. Its range was triggered such that 80% time of the glass is trigger between the ranges. The other building parameters like window wall ratio and orientations were also investigated. The other half of the research study looks into the feasibility of using the Electrochromic windows, as it is ought to be the main factor governing the market usage of Electrochromic windows and to investigate the possible ways to make it feasible. Different LCC parameters were studied to make it market feasible product. This study shows that installing this technology with most appropriate trigger range can reduce annual building energy consumption from 6-8% but still cost of the technology is 3 times the ASHRAE glass, which results in 70-90 years of payback. This study concludes that south orientation saves up to 3-5% of energy and 4-6% of cooling tons while north orientation gives negligible saving using EC glass. LCC parameters show that there is relative change in increasing the net saving for different parameters but none except 50% of the present glass cost is the possible option where significant change is observed.
Dissertation/Thesis
M.S.D. Architecture 2012

The cost of design, construction and maintenance of facilities is on continual rise. The demand is to construct facilities which have been designed by apply life cycle costing principles. These principles have already given strong decision making power to the manufacturing industry. The need to satisfy the environmental sustainability requirements, improve operational effectiveness of buildings and apply value engineering principles has increased the dependency on life cycle costing analysis. The objective is to obtain economically viable solutions by analyzing the alternatives during the design of a building. Though the LCCA process is able to give the desired results, it does have some problems which have stood as hindrances to the more widespread use of the LCCA concept and method. The literature study has highlighted that the problem areas are the lack of frameworks or mechanisms for collecting and storing data and the complexity of LCCA exercise, which involves the analysis of a thousand of building elements and a number of construction-type options and maintenance activities for each building element at detailed design stages. Building Information Modeling has been able to repeatedly answer the questions raised by the AEC industry. The aim of this study is to identify the areas where BIM can be effectively applied to the LCCA process and become a part of the workflow. In this study, initially four LCCA case studies are read and evaluated from the point of view of understanding the method in which the life cycle costing principles have been applied. The purpose, the type alternatives examined, the process of analysis, the type of software used and the results are understood. An attempt has been carried out to understand the workflow of the LCCA process. There is a confidence that Building Information Modeling is capable of handling changes during the design, construction and maintenance phases of the project. Since applying changes to any kind of information of the building during LCC analysis forms the core, it has become necessary to use computer building models for examining these changes. The building modeling softwares are enumerated. The case studies have highlighted that the evaluation of the alternatives are primarily to achieve energy efficient solutions for the buildings. Applying these solutions involves high initial costs. The return on investment is the means by which these solutions become viable to the owners of the facilities. This is where the LCCA has been applied. Two of the important cost elements of the LCC analysis are initial costs and the operating costs of the building. The collaboration of these modeling tools with other estimating software where the initial costs of the building can be generated is studied. The functions of the quantity take-off tools and estimating tools along with the interoperability between these tools are analyzed. The operating costs are generated from the software that focuses on sustainability. And the currently used tools for performing the calculations of the life cycle costing analysis are also observed. The objective is to identify if the currently available BIM tools and software can help in obtaining LCCA results and are able to offset the hindrances of the process. Therefore, the software are studied from the point of view of ease of handling data and the type of data that can be generated. Possible BIM workflows are suggested depending on the functions of the software and the relationship between them. The study has aimed at taking a snapshot the current tools available which can aid the LCCA process. The research is of significance to the construction industry as it forms a precursor to the application of Building Information Modeling to the LCCA process as it shows that it has the capacity of overcoming the obstacles for life cycle costing. This opens a window to the possibility of applying BIM to LCCA and furthering this study.