Purpose of the Service Life and Maintenance Cost Database

Introduction

Accurate and usable building owning and operating cost data is vital for our industry. Every day, engineers are asked to advise building owners and managers on strategic decisions involving the life cycle and functionality of their buildings. The current lack of valid data leaves engineers without a solid basis for making these decisions.

As stated by the sponsoring ASHRAE Technical Committee TC 7.8, Owning and Operating Costs, the industry needs current and correctly applied data to support life-cycle evaluations and better-value HVAC system decisions.

Objectives

1. Develop an interactive web-based database focusing on equipment service life and annual maintenance costs for a variety of building types and HVAC systems.
2. Seed the database with at least 150 validated data sets.
3. Incorporate the results into the appropriate sections of the HVAC Applications Handbook.
4. Provide a starting point for a methodology for continuous updating by the ASHRAE community.

The long-term intent is that an enlarged and diversified database will encourage the ASHRAE community to contribute service life and maintenance cost data, further expanding the utility of the tool.