When considering the 1st cost plan on your project (whatever the scale), the pressures begin and increase exponentially as you progress to reduce costs at each and every meeting, as though it’s a competition! With such challenges in a commercially charged environment aligned with ever inflating material costs means that considering Whole Life payback doesn’t stand a chance, if indeed it even gets as far as being on a meeting agenda.

Whole Life Costing (WLC) is an essential consideration (to our team here at ep architects) but most practitioners can’t even remember the module they did on the subject back at university 25 years ago. We often ask our cost consultant or project QS if they know much about WLC and whilst many remember the term in their distant memory of covering the subject at Uni, they do not even consider the subject on everyday projects.

So, why raise the subject?

Well, with energy use in lifetime, bills rising, insulation as a relatively cheap thing to improve and our industry slowly realising the value of low energy, efficient design, the payback on investing in such interventions are ever more attractive and can be hugely beneficial. Get things right at the outset on new build or retrofit projects and you will reap the financial benefits for the whole life of the building.

It is pretty obvious if one can reduce by 70 or 80 % the energy in-use costs for a building over its lifetime that this can massively alter your perception and the validity of WLC.

As ever, convention and habit can form an enormous barrier and if your consultant team have no understanding of WLC or understanding of the advantages of adding a review to include its benefits at early cost-plan stage, it will not be discussed. We would implore you to raise this subject with your project teams and wherever possible insist it is on all team meeting agendas throughout the design and procurement stages.

When adopted in conjunction with dynamic modelling of buildings to assess and inform building design the results can be impressive. There are many examples of projects which benefit from a joined up, buildings physics informed approach to building design. Anyone who practices AECB Building Standard or uses PHPP in their design process will be able to explain the advantages of adopting such a process and present the financial benefits over a buildings operational lifetime.

Please give the process a go and ask your team to advise regards WLC, they may need external help…. So please support and encourage them, we strongly believe there will be no regrets. As always we are happy to discuss and advise where we can.

Please do not be afraid to ask questions and discuss, whether you agree or disagree!

If we can help you with your project please make contact with ep architects.

ep architects  

info@eparchitects.design