Ignoring the time-based value of money, in Whole Life Cost Modelling, annualised costs are:

Whole Life Cost (WLC), or Life Cycle Cost (LCC), is the total cost of an asset throughout its life, including costs for creation/acquisition, operation, maintenance, and disposal. Annualised cost is a method to express this total cost as an equivalent uniform annual amount over the asset's service life. When ignoring the time value of money (i.e., not using discounting), the calculation is a simple average: the total life cycle costs are summed and then divided by the asset's service life in years. This provides a straightforward metric for comparing assets with different lifespans or cost profiles.

A. This is incorrect because it omits the significant capital (create/acquire) and disposal costs from the total life cycle cost calculation.

B. This correctly describes the components of total life cycle cost, but it represents the total sum, not the annualised figure.

D. This represents only the annual operating and maintenance (O&M) costs, ignoring the initial capital investment and eventual disposal costs.

E. This considers only capital costs (initial and upgrades) and completely ignores the substantial operating and maintenance costs incurred annually.

1. ISO 15686-5:2017, Buildings and constructed assets — Service life planning — Part 5: Life-cycle costing. This standard defines life cycle cost as the cost of an asset throughout its life cycle, and annualised cost as a method to express this.

2. The Institute of Asset Management (IAM). (2015). Asset Management - An Anatomy, Version 3. Section 2.4.3, "Whole Life Costing/Life Cycle Costing". This section describes the methodology for evaluating all significant costs over the life of the asset.

3. University of Cambridge, Institute for Manufacturing (IfM). (2008). A review of whole-life costing in the construction and related industries. This paper defines annualised cost as the total life cycle cost converted to an equivalent annual amount.