In undertaking a full economic analysis of possible energy conserving measures for buildings, the estimation of the future cost of energy presents an apparent difficulty. It is argued that when the full conditions for an economic optimum are identified, this difficulty disappears for an important class of measures. For the class of remaining measures the optimality conditions enable the formulation of simple decision rules based on the relative costs of action now and remedial action later. These decision rules are found to highlight the importance of incorporating in the initial design the option of later easy remedial treatment.
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