APPENDIX 8-H. USER INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE LIFE-CYCLE COST


ANALYSIS SPREADSHEET


TABLE OF CONTENTS


8-H.1 USER INSTRUCTIONS .......................................................................................8-H-1


8-H.2 STARTUP..............................................................................................................8-H-1


8-H.3 DESCRIPTION OF LIFE-CYCLE COST WORKSHEETS ................................8-H-1


8-H.4 BASIC INSTRUCTIONS FOR OPERATING THE LIFE-CYCLE COST


SPREADSHEETS..................................................................................................8-H-3


LIST OF TABLES 

Table 8-H.2.1 List of LCC Spreadsheets ..........................................................................8-H-1


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APPENDIX 8-H. USER INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE LIFE-CYCLE COST ANALYSIS


SPREADSHEET 

8-H.1 USER INSTRUCTIONS 

The results obtained in this analysis can be examined and reproduced using the Microsoft 

Excel spreadsheets accessible on the Internet from DOE's Heating Products Rulemaking page: 

http://www.eere.energy.gov/buildings/appliance_standards/. From that page, follow the links to 

the ANOPR phase and then to the Analytical Tools. 

8-H.2 STARTUP 

DOE named the spreadsheets for the product class and subgroup analysis if applicable. 

The spreadsheets enable users to perform Life-Cycle Cost (LCC) analyses of each product class. 

A separate spreadsheet exists for each of the product classes. Table 8-H.2.1 lists all LCC 

spreadsheets used in this analysis. 

Table 8-H.2.1 List of LCC Spreadsheets 

Filename Description 

LCC_WH_Gas(Storage).xls Gas-fired Storage Water Heater 

LCC_WH_Elec.xls Electric Water Heater 

LCC_WH_Oil.xls Oil-fired Water Heater 

LCC_WH_Gas(Tankless).xls Gas Instantaneous Water Heater 

LCC_PH.xls Pool Heater 

LCC_DHE_GWF.xls Gas Wall Fan DHE 

LCC_DHE_GWG.xls Gas Wall Gravity DHE 

LCC_DHE_GF.xls Gas Floor DHE 

LCC_DHE_GR.xls Gas Room DHE 

To examine the spreadsheets, DOE assumes that the user has access to a personal 

computer (PC) with a hardware configuration capable of running Windows NT/2000/XP. The 

heating products LCC spreadsheets require Microsoft Excel 2000 or later installed under the 

Windows operating system. Because certain variables inside the spreadsheets are defined as 

distributions; the user’s computer requires a copy of Crystal Ball (a commercially available addin program). 

8-H.3 DESCRIPTION OF LIFE-CYCLE COST WORKSHEETS 

For each of the nine product classes, DOE created one spreadsheet as an Excel workbook 

containing a collection of worksheets (referred to as “sheets”). The Department modularized the 

calculations. Each sheet usually represents a conceptual component within the LCC calculation. 

To facilitate navigability and identify how the sheets are related, each sheet contains an area on 

the extreme left that shows the variables which are imported from other sheets and also the 

variables that are used by other sheets. The LCC spreadsheets consist of the following 

worksheets: 

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Summary The Summary sheet contains a user interface to manipulate the Energy 

Price Trend and the Start Year and to run a Crystal Ball simulation. It 

also contains the LCC and Payback Period simulation results for each 

design option of the product class. 

Statistics The Statistics sheet contains the retail price, installation cost, total 

installed price, annual gas use, annual electricity use, burner operating 

hours (steady state for single-stage or high-fire for two-stage and stepmodulation), burning operating hours (low-fire for two-stage and stepmodulation), household characteristics, annual maintenance cost, annual 

repair cost, and annual fuel cost results for each design option of the 

product class. 

LCC&PB Calcs The LCC&PB Calcs sheet shows results of LCC calculations for 

different efficiency levels for a single Residential Energy Consumption 

Survey (RECS) household only.1 During a Crystal Ball simulation, the 

spreadsheet records the LCC and payback periods for every sampled 

household. 

Equip Price The Equip Price sheet calculates retail price values used as inputs in the 

LCC calculations in the Summary sheet. DOE derived the inputs for the 

Equipment Price sheet from the baseline and incremental manufacturer 

costs from the Engineering Spreadsheet. DOE applied baseline and 

incremental markups to calculate the final retail prices. DOE calculated 

the markups differently for replacement units and new units. 

Energy Use The Energy Use sheet calculates annual energy use by fuel type – 

electricity, gas or oil depending on the product class. The annual energy 

use calculations for each design option are inputs to the LCC&PB Calcs 

sheet to calculate the annual operating cost of the LCC. 

RECS HH Data The RECS HH Data sheet contains the RECS 2001 household data for 

each product class. It includes information of the characteristics of each 

household in the RECS database. During a Crystal Ball simulation, 

DOE uses these household characteristics to determine the location of 

the water heater, the operating temperatures, house heating load, annual 

gas or oil use, size of the house, age of the house, and the age of the 

existing heating products. 

Base Case EF The Base Case EF sheet determines the efficiency of the base case unit. 

Installation Cost The Installation Cost sheet provides the weighted average installation 

cost for each design option. It is an input to the Summary sheet to 

calculate the total installed prices of the design options. 

Maintenance and The Maintenance and Repair Cost sheet provides the maintenance and 

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Repair Cost repair cost for each design option. It is an input to the Summary sheet to


be part of the operating costs of the design options.


Energy Price The Energy Price Trends sheet provides the price trends of the different 

Trends heating fuels; these trends represent the growth rate of energy prices 

relative to the energy prices in 2001. DOE took energy price data and 

2 forecasts from the EIA's Annual Energy Outlook 2008 for the period 

until 2030; and then extrapolated beyond 2030. 

Discount Rate	 The Discount Rate sheet contains the distributions of discount rates for 

replacement and new units. 

Lifetime	 The Lifetime sheet contains the distribution of lifetimes for equipment 

of that product class. 

Labels	 The Labels sheet contains labels and variables that are used for the user 

interface in the Summary sheet. 

8-H.4	 BASIC INSTRUCTIONS FOR OPERATING THE LIFE-CYCLE 

COST SPREADSHEETS 

Basic instructions for operating the LCC spreadsheet are as follows: 

1.	 Once the LCC spreadsheet file has been downloaded from the Web, open the file using 

Excel. Click “Enable Macro” when prompted and then click on the tab for the worksheet 

Summary. 

2.	 Use Excel's View/Zoom commands at the top menu bar to change the size of the display 

to fit your monitor. 

3.	 The user can change the parameters listed under USER OPTIONS on the Summary sheet. 

There are three drop-down boxes and one command button. The default parameters are: 

a.	 Energy Price Trend: Set to “AEO 2008 - Reference Case”. To change values use 

the drop-down arrow and select the desired energy price trend (Reference, Low or 

High). 

b.	 Start Year: Set to 2015. To change the value use the drop-down arrow and select 

the desired year (2015, 2011, 2012, 2013 or 2014). 

c.	 # of Trials: Set to 10,000. To change this value use the drop-down arrow and 

select the desired number of trials (10,000, 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 or 5,000). 

4.	 To run the Crystal Ball simulation, click the “run” button (you must re-run after changing 

the parameters). The spreadsheet will then be minimized. You can monitor the progress 

of the simulation by watching the count of iterations at the left bottom corner. When the 

simulation is finished, the sheet named Summary will reappear with the results. 

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REFERENCES


1.	 U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Information Administration, Residential Energy 

Consumption Survey: 2001 Public Use Data Files, 2001. 

<http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/recs/recs2001/publicuse2001.html> 

2.	 U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy 

Outlook 2008 (Revised Early Release) with Projections to 2030, 2008. Washington, DC. 

Report No. DOE/EIA-0383(2008). 

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