There are typically many different solutions to satisfy any given set of heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) requirements. Choice of design should ultimately be made on the basis of economic analysis. This paper introduces methodology for performing economic analysis during HVAC system design. The goal is to enable economic analysis at various stages so that engineers can make more practical design decisions. This paper divides economic prediction into four stages: design beginning, conceptual design, preliminary design, and detailed design. The characteristics of these stages are analyzed to determine the most effective method for predicting initial investment cost and operating cost at each stage.

Units: Dual