Taking an in-depth look at whole building life cycle costs is vitally important and can help justify sustainable design decisions based on payback periods and Return on Investment (ROI) calculations that look beyond initial capital costs of systems and measures to include annual energy bill savings and maintenance costs.
When based on team agreed standards that consider the impact of design decisions on different building components instead of treating them as stand-alone elements, value/cost analysis can bring the design team and client together. A key metric within feasibility studies at the early stages it is considered as part of most analysis tasks. At later detailed and completion stages, detailed assessments refine figures and allow change proposals to be assessed against performance as well as cost metrics.
The closely linked Deft, CostPlan and Lifecycle modules with VE-Pro allow the detailed, effective and structured study of value engineering across the entire design process. A range of building performance indicators can be used to compare different design options at any stage of the process, customised capital cost estimates can be prepared and the operating costs of a building during its lifetime can be taken into consideration.
