1. Payback Period

2. Efficient energy use - Building design
Newer fluorescent lights produce a natural light, and in most applications they are cost effective, despite their higher initial cost, with payback periods as low as a few months.

3. Compact fluorescent lamp - Cost
Savings are greater and payback periods shorter in regions with higher electric rates and, to a lesser extent, also in regions with higher than U.S

4. Biofuel - Greenhouse gas emissions
However, no-till practices combined with cover-crop practices can reduce the payback period to three years for grassland conversion and 14 years for forest conversion

5. Light-emitting diode - Advantages
Several DOE demonstrations have shown that reduced maintenance costs from this extended lifetime, rather than energy savings, is the primary factor in determining the payback period for an LED product.

6. Rate of return - Uses
In the capital budgeting process, companies would traditionally compare the internal rates of return of different projects to decide which projects to pursue in order to maximumize returns for the company's stockholders. Other tools employed by companies in capital budgeting include payback period, net present value, and profitability index.

7. Planned obsolescence - History and origins of the phrase
For example, if the payback period for a product is five years, a firm might refrain from introducing a new product for at least five years even though it may be possible for them to launch in three years

8. WANdisco - History
Forrester Research publish Total Economic Impact study shows a 167% return on investment and nine month payback period for WANdisco product

9. Photovoltaic system - Module life
While it is typically calculated to be between 10 and 20 years, the payback period can be far shorter with incentives.[ It's payback time for home generation]

10. Water conservation - Minimum water network target and design
The cost effective minimum water network is a holistic framework/guide for water conservation that helps in determining the minimum amount of freshwater and wastewater target for an industrial or urban system based on the water management hierarchy i.e. it considers all conceivable methods to save water. The technique ensure that the designer desired payback period is satisfied using Systematic Hierarchical Approach for Resilient Process Screening (SHARPS) technique.

11. Plug-in hybrid - Electric power storage
The payback period may be longer for plug-in hybrids, because of their larger, more expensive batteries.Voelcker, J

12. Ford Fusion Energi - Fuel economy and environmental performance
Edmunds compared the hybrid version priced at with a comparably-equipped gasoline-powered Fusion priced at and found that the payback period is 6 years for gasoline at per gallon, 4 years at per gallon, and drops to 3 years with gasoline prices at per gallon

13. LED - Advantages
Several DOE demonstrations have shown that reduced maintenance costs from this extended lifetime, rather than energy savings, is the primary factor in determining the payback period for an LED product.

14. Negawatt power - Private implementation
This results in a faster payback period for the photovoltaic system

15. Hybrid electric vehicle - Hybrid premium and showroom cost parity
The wikt:trade-off|trade-off between higher initial cost (also called showroom costs) and lower fuel costs (difference often referred to as the payback period) is dependent on usage - miles traveled, or hours of operation, fuel costs, and in some cases, government subsidies

16. Hybrid electric vehicle - Hybrid premium and showroom cost parity
When corrected, the Honda Civic Hybrid and Toyota Prius did have a payback period of slightly less than 5 years

17. Geothermal heat pump
The payback period for larger commercial systems in the US is 1–5 years, even when compared to natural gas

18. Honda Civic Hybrid - Cost of ownership
Consumer Reports ran an article in April 2006 stating that hybrid vehicles would not pay for themselves over 5 years of ownership. However, there was an error in the calculation of depreciation for the hybrid vehicles. It resulted in overstating how much extra money the hybrids would cost their owners during the first five years of ownership. When corrected, the Honda Civic Hybrid did have a payback period of slightly less than 5 years.

19. Feasibility study - Common factors
Typically this means estimating how long the system will take to develop, and if it can be completed in a given time period using some methods like payback period

20. Sustainable architecture - Solar panels
The low efficiency of certain photovoltaic panels can significantly affect the payback period of their installation

21. Sustainable architecture - Solar water heating
Electric-resistance water heaters that are common in homes today have an electrical demand around 4500kW·h/year. With the use of solar collectors, the energy use is cut in half. The up-front cost of installing solar collectors is high, but with the annual energy savings, payback periods are relatively short.

22. ILUC - Searchinger and Fargione studies
corn ethanol required 167 years and cellulosic ethanol required a 52 years payback period

23. Solar thermal - Process heat
The short payback period of transpired collectors (3 to 12years) make them a more cost-effective alternative to glazed collection systems

24. PowerMAN (Software) - Research
* A Salix report contrasted similar sized (3,500) PowerMAN and Verdiem projects at the University of Sussex and the University of the West of England with payback periods of 0.5 and 2.5 years respectively.

25. Solar water heating - System cost
Offsetting this expense can take several years and the payback period is longer in temperate environments where the insolation is less intense

26. Solar water heating - System cost
The calculation of long term cost and payback period for a household SWH system depends on a number of factors. Some of these are:

27. Solar water heating - System cost
For instance in central and southern Florida the payback period could easily be 7 years or less rather than the 12.6 years indicated on the chart for the US.[ Simplified Residential Solar Hot Water System Calculator], Florida Solar Energy Center (2007).

28. Solar water heating - System cost
Many SWH systems supply only a fraction of warm water needs and are augmented by gas or electric heating on a daily basis, thus extending the payback period of such a system.

29. Solar water heating - System cost
Solar leasing is now available in Spain for solar water heating systems from Pretasol with a typical system costing around 59 euros and rising to 99 euros per month for a system that would provide sufficient hot water for a typical family home of six persons. The payback period would be five years.

30. Copper in renewable energy - Energy efficiency and system design considerations
Complex cost evaluations, factoring extra costs for materials, the amount of solar radiation directed towards solar modules per year (accounting for diurnal and seasonal variations, subsidies, tariffs, payback periods, etc.) are necessary to determine whether higher initial investments for thicker cables are justified.

31. Community solar farm - Massachusetts
Massachusetts and the Federal government each offered incentives to improve solar economics. A traditional investment in photovoltaics without incentives would take 12 or more years to pay back the initial cost. The incentives lowered the payback period to 6–10 years.

32. Renewable heat - Wood-pellet heating
Solid wood fuel requires a large amount of dedicated storage space, and the specialized heating systems can be expensive (though grant schemes are available in many European countries to offset this capital cost.) Low fuel costs mean that wood fuelled heating in Europe is frequently able to achieve a payback period of less than 3 to 5 years

33. Net present value - Alternative capital budgeting methods
* Payback period: which measures the time required for the cash inflows to equal the original outlay. It measures risk, not return.

34. Launch loop - Economics
For $30 billion, with a larger power generation capacity, the loop would be capable of launching 6 million metric tons per year, and given a five-year payback period, the costs for accessing space with a launch loop could be as low as $3/kg.[ Launch Loop slides for the ISDC2002 conference]

35. Corporate finance - Investment and project valuation
These are visible from the DCF and include discounted payback period, internal rate of return|IRR, Modified Internal Rate of Return|Modified IRR, Equivalent Annual Cost|equivalent annuity, capital efficiency, and Return on investment|ROI

36. Andrew A. Frank - PHEV Commercialization
Cost and payback period as well as the electrical infrastructure with and without renewable energy in the mix must be considered as well as product quality.

37. Asteroid mining - Financial feasibility
The payback period and the high risk involved make asteroid mining a less competitive venture compared to terrestrial projects. Launching costs may be the most significant, which can only lower over time through to increased competition and technological improvements. Asteroid mining will become more viable when fixed costs lower due to development in infrastructure.

38. Build-Operate-Transfer - BOO (build–own–operate)
A BOO scheme involves large amounts of finance and long payback period

39. CASE tool - Risks and associated controls
* Unrealistic expectations: Organizations often implement CASE technologies to reduce development costs. Implementing CASE strategies usually involves high start-up costs. Generally, management must be willing to accept a long-term payback period. Controls include requiring senior managers to define their purpose and strategies for implementing CASE technologies.

40. Capital budgeting
These methods use the incremental cash flows from each potential investment, or project. Techniques based on accounting earnings and accounting rules are sometimes used - though economists consider this to be improper - such as the accounting rate of return, and return on investment. Simplified and hybrid methods are used as well, such as payback period and discounted payback period.

41. Capital budgeting - Capital Budgeting Definition
Popular methods of capital budgeting include net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), discounted cash flow (DCF) and payback period.

42. Energy audit - Walk-through or preliminary audit
Typically, only major problem areas will be covered during this type of audit. Corrective measures are briefly described, and quick estimates of implementation cost, potential operating cost savings, and simple payback periods are provided. A list of energy conservation measures(ECMs, or energy conservation opportunities, ECOs) requiring further consideration is also provided.

43. Opportunity management - Opportunity Management and Project Management
Opportunity management determines the payback of the project within the initiation stage. Although the payback period is defined by Kerzner as the least precise of all capital budgeting methods because the calculations are in dollars and cannot adjusted for the time value of money.ibid By establishing the payback period within the opportunity management process, project managers may continually assess the project expenditures and re-evaluate the payback period on an ongoing basis.

44. Energy Policy Act of 2005 - Energy management
The commercial building tax deductions can be used to improve the payback period of a prospective energy improvement investment.

45. Solar array - Solar array
While it is typically calculated to be between 10 and 20 years, the financial payback period can be far shorter with incentives.[ It's payback time for home generation]

46. Solar air heat - Variations of transpired solar collectors
In cases where there is a heating requirement, incorporating a solar air component into the PV system produces two technical advantages; it removes the PV heat and allows the PV system to operate at its rated efficiency (which is 25C); and it decreases the total energy payback period associated with the combined system because the heat energy is captured and used to offset conventional heating.

47. Payback period
Payback period is popular due to its ease of use despite the recognized limitations described below.

48. Payback period
Although primarily a financial term, the concept of a payback period is occasionally extended to other uses, such as energy payback period (the period of time over which the energy savings of a project equal the amount of energy expended since project inception); these other terms may not be standardized or widely used.

49. Payback period - Purpose
Payback period as a tool of analysis is often used because it is easy to apply and easy to understand for most individuals, regardless of academic training or field of endeavor. When used carefully or to compare similar investments, it can be quite useful. As a stand-alone tool to compare an investment to doing nothing, payback period has no explicit criteria for decision-making (except, perhaps, that the payback period should be less than infinity).

50. Payback period - Purpose
Payback period does not specify any required comparison to other investments or even to not making an investment.

51. Payback period - Construction
Payback period is usually expressed in years. Start by calculating Net Cash Flow for each year: Net Cash Flow Year 1 = Cash Inflow Year 1 - Cash Outflow Year 1. Then Cumulative Cash Flow = (Net Cash Flow Year 1 + Net Cash Flow Year 2 + Net Cash Flow Year 3, etc.) Accumulate by year until Cumulative Cash Flow is a positive number: that year is the payback year.

52. Payback period - Construction
To calculate a more exact payback period:

53. Payback period - Construction
Payback Period = Amount to be Invested/Estimated Annual Net Cash FlowWilliams, J. R., et al., Financial and Managerial Accounting, McGraw-Hill, 2012, p

54. Payback period - Construction
This formula can only be used to calculate the soonest payback period; that is, the first period after which the investment has paid for itself. If the cumulative cash flow drops to a negative value some time after it has reached a positive value, thereby changing the payback period, this formula can't be applied. This formula ignores values that arise after the payback period has been reached.

55. Payback period - Construction
Additional complexity arises when the cash flow changes sign several times; i.e., it contains outflows in the midst or at the end of the project lifetime. The modified payback period algorithm may be applied then. First, the sum of all of the cash outflows is calculated. Then the cumulative positive cash flows are determined for each period. The modified payback is calculated as the moment in which the cumulative positive cash flow exceeds the total cash outflow.

56. Plug-in hybrid - Operating costs
A study published in 2014 by researchers from Lamar University, Iowa State University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory compared the operating costs of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) of various electric ranges (10, 20, 30, and 40 miles) with conventional gasoline vehicles and hybrid-electric vehicles (HEVs) for different payback periods, considering different charging infrastructure deployment levels and gasoline prices

57. Capitalization rate - Explanatory Examples
Capitalization rates are an indirect measure of how fast an investment will pay for itself. In the example above, the purchased building will be fully capitalized (pay for itself) after ten years (100% divided by 10%). If the capitalization rate were 5%, the payback period would be twenty years.

58. Minimum acceptable rate of return
The hurdle rate determines how rapidly the value of the dollar decreases out in time, which, parenthetically, is a significant factor in determining the payback period for the capital project when discounting forecast savings and spending back to present-day terms

59. University of Arkansas - Sustainability
The program was designed with a payback period of 13 years based upon projected electricity and water savings

60. CAFM - Sustainability
*Forecast sustainability projects’ financial impacts (net present value, internal rate of return, ROI, payback period) and environmental impacts

61. PB&J Otter - Economics and finance
* Payback period, in capital budgeting refers to the period of time required for the return on an investment to repay the sum of the original investment

62. Golden Ears Bridge - Toll Revenues
Toll revenues will rise to track inflation over the thirty-two-year payback period for the bridge which runs until 2040; the toll increase in 2011 was 3.5% on average. The difference between the toll revenue and TransLink's costs which it is obligated to pay the bridge’s builder each year will come out of TransLink's general operating budget; in 2011 this shortfall was estimated at $33 million.

63. Electricity sector in Guyana - Wind
This is a small project with expected energy savings of around US$30,000, and a payback period of 40 months

64. Daylight harvesting - Payback, and drivers for adoption
There is an incremental cost to daylight harvesting systems. Dividing this cost by the annual energy savings provides a simple payback, the number of years for the system to pay for itself. The shorter the calculated payback period, the more likely it is that a building owner will invest in the system. Costs vary for a whole host of local factors, but generally if energy costs rise, or the cost of the control hardware and installation falls, the payback period will be reduced.

65. Daylight harvesting - Sustainability
, which also reduces payback periods.

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