Installation costs

The factors fp and fj have not been applied to installation costs because installation costs are not a simple function of purchase cost. Although process piping and fittings made for the same unusual conditions are proportionally more expensive, labor, foundations, insulation, etc. are not. Furthermore, only about 70 percent of piping is directly exposed to process fluid. The balance is auxiliary or utility piping made of conventional materials. 

It should be emphasized that capital cost estimates using installation factors are at best crude and at worst highly misleading. When preparing such an estimate, the designer spends most of the time on the equipment costs, which represent typically 20 to 40 percent of the total installed cost. The bulk costs (civil engineering, labor, etc.) are factored costs which lack definition. At best, this type of estimate can be expected to be accurate to 30 percent. 

The cost of off-sites ranges typically from 20 to 40 percent of the total installed cost of the plant. In general terms, the larger the plant, the larger will be the fraction of the total project cost which goes to off-sites. In other words, a small project will require typically 20 percent of the total installed cost as off-sites. For a large project, the figure will be typically up to 40 percent. 

Washing of Solids. Washing is a process designed to replace the mother liquor in the solids stream with a wash Hquid. The growing importance of this process is due to demands for increased purity of the products combined with the increasingly poorer raw materials available. Washing often may represent a dominant portion of the installation cost because it is usually multistaged and often countercurrent. 

There are, however, two significant drawbacks to horizontal filters, ie, such filters usually require large floor areas, and their capital cost is high. Saving in floor area as well as in installed cost can be made by using a filter with vertical or other nonhorizontal filtration surfaces but at the cost of losing most, if not all, of the advantages of horizontal filters. 

Explosion-welded constmction has equivalent or better properties than the more compHcated riveted systems. Peripheral benefits include weight savings and perfect electrical grounding. In addition to lower initial installation costs, the welded system requires tittle or no maintenance and, therefore minimizes life-cycle costs. Applications of stmctural transition joints include aluminum superstmctures that are welded to decks of naval vessels and commercial ships as illustrated in Figure 11. 

Process Measurements. The most commonly measured process variables are pressures, flows, levels, and temperatures (see Flow LffiASURELffiNT Liquid-levell asurel nt PressureLffiASURELffiNT Temperaturel asurel nt). When appropriate, other physical properties, chemical properties, and chemical compositions are also measured. The selection of the proper instmmentation for a particular appHcation is dependent on factors such as the type and nature of the fluid or soHd involved relevant process conditions rangeabiHty, accuracy, and repeatabiHty requited response time installed cost and maintainabiHty and reHabiHty. Various handbooks are available that can assist in selecting sensors (qv) for particular appHcations (14—16). 

Process Instrumentation and Control Systems. Investment for instmmentation and control systems and their installation typically range between 3 to 10% of the total installed cost for a grassroots continuous process faciUty. Instmmentation and control systems also represent a substantial percentage of the overall faciUty maintenance (qv) costs. Investment costs may be placed in one of two categories, ie, nondiscretionary and discretionary. 

Since the mid-1980s, PV sales have climbed by a factor of four or more to over 60 MW annually, while installed costs have fallen by mote than half. In this same period, a substantial consumer market for PV-poweted watches and calculators emerged in Japan. The total number of these products in the marketplace in the 1990s numbers in the hundreds of millions. 

In addition, other utiUties are installing estabUshed solar cells in a growing number of tests that may lead to a mass market. The studies may indicate the extent to which solar cells can be used to avoid installation costs for new distribution lines between conventional power plants and remote customers buildings. Also, among other objectives, PV cells may provide an economical means of helping to supply demand during peak summer periods in northern climates. 

The level of benefits from tax credits and favorable power purchase terms that helped give these installations their start has diminished in recent years. Nevertheless, with the remaining tax credits available and given current (ca 1995) natural gas prices, solar-thermal technology can deUver power at 8—12 /kW-h and an installed cost of 2500— 3000/kW. 

Not all of the gas is wasted. About 300 MW of electricity is generated from landfills. A variety of electric generation systems have been employed by a small number of developers. Most projects use simple technology and are small (2—10 MW). However, an EPRI study has estimated that landfill gas resources in the United States could support 6,000 MW of generation if utilized in 2-MW-sized carbonate fuel cells. Constmction on the world s first utihty-scale direct carbonate fuel cell demonstration was begun in California. If successful, EPRI estimates that precommercial 3-MW plants based on this design could become available by the end of this decade at an installed cost of 17,000/kW. 

The Shoe grouting system is considered nonhazardous and nonpolluting. Sodium silicate is essentially nontoxic. Formamide is toxic and corrosive, but does not present a serious hazard if normal safety precautions are followed. Shoe chemical grout materials are two to five times more expensive than Portland cement, depending on the sodium silicate to formamide concentration ratios. Installed costs are generally more similar to those for cement grouts. 

Equipment Costs. Equipment costs include the purchased cost of process and materials handling equipment, storage faciUties, waste treatment equipment, stmctures, and site service faciUties. Installation costs such as insulation, piping, painting and finishing, foundations, process stmctures, instmmentation, and electrical service connections are estimated or factored separately. Actual quoted prices from suppHers are the best data, but these are not usually available when estimates are made. The quick, inexpensive cost estimates are based largely on personal cost files, internal company cost data, or pubUshed cost correlations. 

Electiical classification. Article 500 of the National Electric-Code provides for the classification of the hazardous nature of the process area in which the measurement device will be installed. If the measurement device is not inherently compatible with this classification, suitable enclosures must be purchased and included in the installation costs. 

Physical access. Subsequent to installation, maintenance personnel must have physical access to the measurement device for maintenance and cahbration. If additional structural facilities are required, they must be included in the installation costs. 

Example 23 Estimation of Total Installed Cost of a Plant. 9-68... 

Cost particularized by tbe subscript Installed cost of a cooling tower Installed cost of a deminerabzed-water system... 

Total Capital Cost The installed cost of the fixed-capital investment Cpc is obviously an essential item which must be forecast before an investment decision can be made. It forms pai4 of the total capital investment Cfc, defined by Eq. (9-14). The fixed-capital investment is usually regarded as the capital needed to provide all the depreciable facihties. It is sometimes divided into two classes by defining battery limits and auxiliaiy facilities for the project. The boundary for batteiy limits includes all manufacturing equipment but excludes administrative offices, storage areas, utihties, and other essential and nonessential auxihaiy facilities. 

Factor Estimations Most factor methods for estimating the total installed cost of a process plant are based on a combination of materials, labor, and overhead cost components. These can be conveniently grouped as... 

IIS estimate the total installed cost for a grass-roots plant producing an organic chemical (S-F process) on a continuous basis. We assume that the total cost of delivered equipment 2, (C )del is 1 million and use suitable factors from Table 9-51. 

Pricing as a factor of total plant installed cost... 

Total installed cost per lighting outlet by type... 

Total installed cost of receptacles by type (incandescent, fluorescent, etc.)... 

Total installed cost for each wired instrumentation point... 

Total installed cost per lineal foot of distribution by type (overhead bare and insulated, underground)... 

Total installed cost of each interlock point... 

Each unit cost contains all the costs involved in the installation of that unit. For motors installed costs include the starter, conduit, wire, and a proportionate share of the service panelboard and busbars. The motor cost is not included since this will be part of the equipment cost. In the case of lighting, the installed cost includes the lighting fixtures, the conduit and wire, and a proportional share of the hghting panelboard and service switching costs. 

Water Systems These systems usually form the third highest cost item in chemical-plant anxiharies, with cooling towers representing the largest part of the investment. Although the installed cost increases with the terminal temperature range, an approximate cost correlation is given by... 

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