This report provides a user's manual for the FEDSOL computer program and a guide for designing and sizing solar energy projects for Federal buildings. The life-cycle cost procedures implemented by the computer program and explained in the report are consistent with the Federal Rules for Life-Cycle Costing (10 CFR Part 436) as applied to solar energy projects.The FEDSOL program determines the economically optimal size of a solar energy system for a user-specified building, location, system type, and set of economic conditions; it conducts numerous breakeven and sensitivity analyses; and it calculates measures of economic performance as required under the Federal Rules. The economic model in the program is linked with the SLR (Solar Load Ratio) design method developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory to predict the performance of active systems. The economics portion of the program can, however, be used apart from the SLR method, with performance data provided by the user. An environmental data file for 243 U.S. cities is included in the program. Highly user oriented, the FEDSOL program is intended as a design and sizing tool for use by architects, engineers, and facilities managers in developing plans for Federal solar energy projects.

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