Material Selection — Contignum

Building or renovating while being considerate of sustainable development can quickly become a costly endeavour. Some of the materials are more expensive than their alternatives, and it can be difficult to balance your budget, appearance, and functionality with the cost of materials.

When will you get your return on investment?

When building for sustainable development, you may want to consider when you will get a return on your investment (ROI). By looking at the price you will need to pay today, and the energy savings you will gain over time, it is possible to determine how long it will take to pay off the initial investment.

To demonstrate how you can find your payback period, let’s look at the cost of replacing a 35W halogen light bulb to the equivalent LED light which only requires 5W of energy. I’ve assumed that the light is on for two hours in the morning, five hours at night, and most of the day on the weekend. I have used the time-of-use pricing from the Ontario Energy Board that took effect in November of 2019. The resulting price to power the light bulb for the year is $23.81 for the halogen light bulb and $1.98 for the LED light bulb. If we consider that the halogen light costs about $6.02 and an LED light bulb costs about $4.07, you can do the payback period calculation shown below. The result is that the energy savings will lead to your LED lightbulb being paid back after 0.099 years or 36 days of use.

Similar calculations can be done for other, more complex material choices. As an engineer, I know that I would want to spend a lot of time doing calculations to confirm my material choices, so I want to caution you: don’t lose too much time and money doing calculations. Do what you need to do to be comfortable with your decision, but at the end of the day, your consultant should have an idea of which materials have a good balance between cost and ROI, and they should also be able to provide you with support in determining your ROI if this is important to you.

What to do if upfront costs are too high?

If the products recommended for sustainable development have prohibitively high upfront costs for your budget, then you must discuss alternatives with your consultant. The design may have specified a certain product or brand, but there may be equivalent products that work just as well for a lower cost. Your consultant can also help you find any city, province, or federal incentive programs that may provide reimbursement for some of the work to be completed. There may also be some design changes that can be made to improve the sustainability of the space. The most important thing, however, is to discuss your design, projected costs, and available budget prior to the commencement of construction so that the appropriate changes can be made. It is a lot less expensive to make changes on paper than once the build has started.

Time is also money

Be careful that you aren’t spending an excessive amount of time calculating ROI or trying to find material alternatives. It may not only cost you extra to pay your consultant, but more importantly your time is valuable. I fall into this trap often, wanting to analyze every option until I know with 100% certainty that I am making the right decision. The problem, however, is that I usually only save a small amount of money and spend hours, and sometimes days, coming to the decision that was recommended by those knowledgeable in the field. Trust your gut: if you trust your consultant, then go with their recommendation, and if you need to do some research to feel comfortable with your decision, then do your research—just make sure you find the balance in paying with your time.

Breaking Biases

If you do decide to do some research on materials and products, watch out for biases. Without knowing it, we often have biases with regards to construction materials. I subconsciously thought that all insulation should be the fiberglass pink insulation since that is what I remember as a child, but things have changed since I was 10 and now there are so many other insulating alternatives that are more energy-efficient, are water resistant, and are easier to handle. It’s important to keep an open mind to the products presented by your consultant or contractor, or products you research online. There are constantly new products being made available, and new research that indicates a better way of building homes for sustainable development. Be open to these new ideas—you may find cost-effective solutions to building the space of your dreams.

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