Life-cycle cost and financial analysis of energy components in mass housing projects – A case project in sub-urban India

Environmental concern based designs are becoming essential in urban India. Shift of population from rural to urban cities is leading to the associated burden of mass housing facilities. The paper discusses the economic feasibility of using energy conservation green components by performing their life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) in large mass housing projects. A total of six components including solar applications have been evaluated for a case project placed in Mumbai suburban location in India. LCCA is performed from the projections of Wholesale price indices and wholesale market price fluctuations of the commodities. Labour cost projections are performed from minimum wages provided by the ministry. For calculation of savings, exponential increase in electricity tariff is considered. The capital cost of energy components contributes in the range of 5–7% to the conventional built up area cost. LCCA suggests that the significant share of cost is related to maintenance, repair and replacement activities of all components. Financial analysis results suggest that the components provide a payback of 11 years at 8% discounting rate and 7 years at non discounted values. The results of this study are expected to benefit investors in mass housing projects for their financial and budgetary decision making in implementing energy efficient based design.