Prediction model for operating costs of office buildings

摘要

This paper describes the life cycle and the regarding operating costs of office buildings and constructs a prediction model to properly estimate future costs. To forecast the economical impact of a building during its life cycle the scientific software tool "BUBI" was developed at the University of Technology Darmstadt. The appropriate prediction of the operating costs is essentially based on a simulation of the characteristics of the building. Costs like maintenance will be considered by benchmarks determined through the evaluation of empirical data. Furthermore the analysis of the cost-effectiveness, comparing qualitative and quantitative aspects of different execution solutions can be done with "BUBI". An office building variant is cost-effective if, on the basis of the life cycle costs analysis, it is determined to have the lowest costs of competing alternatives for a given amount of benefits. Therewith a scientifically founded decision for one of the execution variants is possible for investors and designers.