The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) developed the Building Life Cycle Cost (BLCC) Programs to provide computational support for the analysis of capital investments in buildings. They include BLCC, Energy Escalation Rate Calculator (EERC), Handbook 135, and Annual Supplement to Handbook 135.
Building Life Cycle Cost Program
NIST released a web-based version of BLCC to replace the current desktop application. Both versions will be available until Spring 2026, at which time the desktop application will be sunset. Feedback can be provided to Joshua Kneifel.
Note: BLCC is no longer available for Mac due to Mac Gatekeeper installation restrictions.
BLCC version 5_3_25 contains the following modules:
- Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) Analysis, Energy Project
- Federal Analysis, Financed Project Office of Management and Budget Analysis
- Military Construction (MILCON) Analysis, Energy Project
- MILCON Analysis, Energy Conservation Resilience Investment Program
- MILCON Analysis, Non-Energy Project
BLCC conducts economic analyses by evaluating the relative cost effectiveness of alternative buildings and building-related systems or components. Typically, BLCC is used to evaluate alternative designs that have higher initial costs but lower operating costs over the project life than the lowest-initial-cost design. It is especially useful for evaluating the costs and benefits of energy and water conservation and renewable energy projects.
The life cycle cost (LCC) of two or more alternative designs is computed and compared to determine which has the lowest LCC and is therefore more economical in the long run.
BLCC also calculates comparative economic measures for alternative designs, including net savings, savings-to-investment ratio, adjusted internal rate of return, and years to payback.
- BLCC is programmed in Java with an XML file format.
- The user's guide is part of the BLCC Help system.
- If you are experiencing issues installing BLCC, visit the NIST BLCC webpage.
Energy Escalation Rate Calculator
EERC-2025 is available through a newly refreshed web interface. Feedback on the web-based tool can be submitted to Joshua Kneifel.
EERC computes a compound annual average escalation rate for a specified period, which can be used as an escalation rate for contract payments in energy savings performance contracts and utility energy services contracts. Escalation rates are computed based on the Energy Information Administration (EIA) energy price projections in the Annual Energy Outlook and the discount rates calculated for FEMP.
Handbook 135
Handbook 135, the Life Cycle Costing Manual for FEMP, explains in detail the principles of life cycle cost analysis and integrates them with FEMP criteria. The most recent revision to Handbook 135 was last updated in 2025.
Annual Supplement to Handbook 135
Energy Price Indices and Discount Factors for Life Cycle Cost Analysis, Annual Supplement to Handbook 135, are embedded in the above software and available in this publication.
The factors are calculated with the latest FEMP discount factors and energy price escalation rates for U.S. Census divisions, customer types, and fuel types.
The format of the Annual Supplement to Handbook 135 has been modified. The new format includes a streamlined PDF, a supplemental ZIP file that provides the code used to collect the source data and calculate the values, and a data table spreadsheet containing the associated data tables that are now machine-readable.