This paper presents the life cycle cost analysis of passive solar stills by incorporating the effect of energy payback period. Exergoeconomic and energy matrices have been evaluated for climatic condition of New Delhi. The annual exergy, yield and energy have been calculated considering the four climatic conditions for each month of year. The kW h per unit cost based on exergoeconomic parameter has been found to be 0.144 kW h/Rs. and 0.137 kW h/Rs. for single and double slope passive solar stills respectively. It is inferred that single slope solar still performs better than double slope solar still based on annual exergy analysis. (c) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.