- annual cost
means the sum of running costs and replacement costs paid per year;
- calculation period
means the time period considered for the calculation, usually expressed in years;
- cost of greenhouse gas emissions
means the monetary value of environmental damage caused by CO2 emissions, related to the energy consumption in buildings;
- discount factor
means a multiplicative number used to convert a cash flow occurring at a given point in time to its equivalent value at the starting point, which is derived from the discount rate;
- discount rate
means a specific value to compare the value of money at different times expressed in real terms;
- energy cost
means the annual energy costs, including energy price, capacity tariffs and grid tariffs, and national taxes, taking into account the cost of greenhouse gas allowances.
- energy efficiency measure
means a change to a building or building element resulting in a reduction of the building’s final energy use;
- environmental and health externalities of energy use
means, but is not limited to, the monetary value of the health and environmental damage caused by emissions of PM2,5 and NOx, related to the energy consumption in buildings;
- global cost
means the sum of the present values of the initial investment costs, running costs, replacement costs (referred to the starting year), waste management costs, if applicable and, for the purposes of the calculation at macroeconomic level, it includes costs of greenhouse gas emissions as well as health and environmental externalities of energy use;
- initial investment cost
means all costs incurred up to the point when the building or building element is delivered to the customer, ready to use.
- maintenance cost
means the annual costs for measures to preserve and restore the desired quality of the building or building element including annual costs for inspection, cleaning, adjustments, repair and consumable items;
- operational cost
means all costs linked to the operation of the building, including annual costs for insurance, utility charges and other standing charges and taxes;
- package
means a set of energy efficiency measures or measures based on renewable energy sources applied to a reference building, or both;
- price development
means the development over time of prices for energy, products, building systems, services, labour, maintenance and other costs which can be different from the inflation rate;
- reference building
means a hypothetical or real building that represents the typical building geometry and systems, the typical energy performance for both building envelope and systems, the typical functionality and typical cost structure in the Member State, and that is representative of climatic conditions and geographic location;
- replacement cost
means a substitute investment for a building element, in accordance with the estimated economic life cycle during the calculation period;
- residual value of a building
means the sum of the residual values of building elements at the end of the calculation period;
- running cost
means the annual maintenance, operational and energy costs;
- starting year
means the year from which the calculation period is determined;
- subcategories of buildings
means categories of building types that are more disaggregated according to size, age, construction material, use pattern, climatic zone or according to criteria other than those established by point 6 of Annex I to Directive (EU) 2024/1275, for which reference buildings are generally established;
- variant
means the global result and description of a full set of measures or packages applied to a building that can be made up of a combination of measures on the building envelope, passive techniques, measures on building systems or measures based on renewable energy sources, or a combination of those measures;
- waste management cost
means the cost of a building or building element at the end of its life, including dismantling, removal of building elements that have not yet come to the end of their lifetime, transport, disposal and recycling;