Welcome to lesson 6 of Energy Audit Modeling. This is the final lesson in this course. Now that we have created the model, calibrated it, and simulated the different EEMs, it is time to extract the results of this process to use in our Energy Audit Report. These are the economic results of our analysis, specifically the cost savings that is predicted by our energy model. Some of this work will need to be done in the previous phase in order to rank the EEMs when accounting for interaction.

These results include taking into account implementation costs, energy cost escalation, Operations and maintenance cost, and equipment life-span. We will conclude with a discussion about different economic measures, or ways to describe how each EEM performs from an economic standpoint.

First we need to estimate how much money each of our recommended EEMs is going to cost to implement. The goal is to compare how much cost is saved in energy and how much it costs to buy and install the pieces required to save the energy.

A common method is to use estimating reference books or software. RS Means Cost Data is one publication that can be used. Another option is to get actual quotes from contractors for implementing certain EEMs. This is especially helpful for large capitol-intensive projects. This may be the most accurate way to estimate costs, but this will depend on the contractor.