Commercial equipment cost database

Abstract

This report, prepared for DOE, Office of Codes and Standards, as part of the Commercial Equipment Standards Program at Pacific Northwest Laboratory, specifically addresses the equipment cost estimates used to evaluate the economic impacts of revised standards. A database including commercial equipment list prices and estimated contractor costs was developed, and through statistical modeling, estimated contractor costs are related to equipment parameters including performance. These models are then used to evaluate cost estimates developed by the ASHRAE 90.1 Standing Standards Project Committee, which is in the process of developing a revised ASHRAE 90.1 standard. The database will also be used to support further evaluation of the manufacturer and consumer impacts of standards. Cost estimates developed from the database will serve as inputs to economic modeling tools, which will be used to estimate these impacts. Preliminary results suggest that list pricing is a suitable measure from which to estimate contractor costs for commercial equipment. Models developed from these cost estimates accurately predict estimated costs. The models also confirm the expected relationships between equipment characteristics and cost. Cost models were developed for gas-fired and electric water heaters, gas-fired packaged boilers, and warm air furnaces for indoor installation. Because of industry concerns about the use of the data, information was not available for the other categories of EPAct-covered equipment. These concerns must be addressed to extend the analysis to all EPAct equipment categories.