Overview
The Life-cycle cost (CML) tool is designed in line with ISO 15686-5 and EN 16627 standards. The results will be reported based on cost categories mandatory in the EN standard. As a minimum, the categories which must be reported are construction, operation, maintenance and end-of-life costs.
This guide helps you to successfully complete your calculations for BREEAM Life Cycle Costing credits in One Click LCA with our automated LCC tool. Please note that this guidance only applies to BREEAM International 2016, but the LCC tool can also be used for other schemes.
Scope
The One Click LCA Life-cycle costing tool enables you to select the calculation period, which is used to calculate the number of replacements.
Building materials service life will be defined based on service life values as selected for the
LCA calculations. They can be adjusted as necessary.Replacement/refurbishment costs will be calculated based on the area of the building (can
be entered as a lump sum) and the service life of construction materials.Operational costs will be calculated based on operational energy and water consumption.
If your license does not include automated cost data, then all the cost elements must be included manually.
Guidance
In order to achieve your credits, you must follow BREEAM requirements. You can see a description of the Concept Design stage at www.ribaplanofwork.com.
Elemental life cycle cost (LCC) (2 credits)
An outline of the entire asset elemental LCC plan has been carried out at the Concept Design stage together with any design option appraisals in line with ‘Buildings and constructed assets – Service life planning – Part 5: Life cycle costing ISO 15686- 5:2008.' The outline LCC plan:
Provides an indication of future replacement costs over a period of analysis as required by
the client (e.g. 20, 30, 50 or 60 years)Includes service life, maintenance and operation cost estimates.
Demonstrate, using appropriate examples provided by the design team, how the elemental LCC plan
has been used to influence building and systems design, and specification to minimise life cycle costs
and maximise critical value.
Component level life cycle cost (1 credit)
A component-level LCC options appraisal has been developed by the end of Process Stage 4 (equivalent to Technical Design Stage) in line with ISO 15686-5:2008, and includes the following component types (where present):
Building envelope, e.g. cladding, windows, or roofing
Services, e.g. heat source, cooling source or controls
Finishes, e.g. walls, floors or ceilings
External spaces, e.g. alternative hard landscaping, and boundary protection.
Demonstrate, using appropriate examples provided by the design team, how the component level
LCC options appraisal has been used to influence building and systems design, and specification to
minimise life cycle costs and maximise critical value.
Follow this step-by-step guide to complete the calculations:
Set your LCC study parameters.
Click ‘Parameters’ and 'Input data: LCC parameters' from the project main page.
The LCC parameters are location-specific; filling in the question is mandatory, also it is also required to enable the automated cost data generation.
Firstly, set cost regionalisation by selecting the country and clicking ‘Load regional cost parameters’.
This generates automatic inputs for your project location. Please note that the generated values are averaged cost data and might not represent the real values for your project. Edit the generated parameters as necessary.
If your license includes the automated costing database, you should check as a minimum:
Exchange rate (expressed against 1 Euro)
Hourly labour rate worker (average hourly labour cost for low-skilled workers)
Hourly labour rate craftsman (average hourly labour cost for high-skilled workers)
Building materials
The construction material costs are included in the ‘Building materials’ question form. All your building materials and quantities can be automatically imported (see our import options and guidance for import here) or added manually.
If you have already calculated your Mat01 credits with our tool, the materials are automatically taken from your LCA calculation question form ‘Building materials’.
If your license includes the automated costing database, the software provides you with default unit costs, which you can edit as necessary. If you know the lump sum of your material costs, edit the 'Total cost', and make sure to mark Unit cost "1". If your license does not include the LCC database, you will need to add all costs manually.
If you have cost data available for the whole building element, you can mark the ‘Total cost’ to be 0 for those material rows on the Building materials question form and add the element total cost to the ‘Other capital cost’ question form, under ‘Construction cost’ and mark to the comment field its name (e.g. External windows and roof lights). Make sure to mark the service life to enable replacement cost calculation.
You can use the comment row to structure your cost elements or mark if they are not included in your cost calculations, if you wish.
Replacement costs are calculated based on the total cost and service life of your construction materials.
Please note: When adding materials or editing quantities, units or service life in this question form, the inputs will also change in the LCA tool and vice versa
Calculation period
Set your LCC study calculation period as specified by the client/scheme in the ‘Calculation period’ question form. Note that if the calculations for your LCA are complete, your LCC results will be displayed after setting the calculation period. You should, however, adjust the LCC based on your project cost-specific info.
Capital and Operational Costs
Operational Costs
The operational costs are included in the ‘Energy consumption’, ‘Water consumption’ and ‘Other operating cost’ question forms. Like building materials, the energy and water consumption values are taken from your LCA calculations (and vice versa). The software will provide you default unit cost (if the LCC cost database is included in your license), which you can adjust as necessary. If you know the annual costs for water and energy consumption, change the Total cost.
Other operational costs (cleaning, minor repair, etc.) are to be added to ‘Other operating cost’ question form. Most of the inputs are calculated based on area. If you know the lump sum of the cost element, set the 'Unit cost' as 1 and insert ‘Total cost’.
Capital Costs
Capital costs represent any other one-off costs, such as land purchase, and permits. These will only be counted once, at the start of the calculation period.
Results
You can analyse your results on the Results page. The results can be downloaded when clicking on ‘More actions’ (upper right corner on the 'Results' page) and ‘Life-cycle cost report’.