For various owners, a garage is a primary entrance to a residential property. It’s often the most prominent entrance to any home’s exterior. Due to such a fact, the garage area can be the most considerable area for heat loss, affecting the home’s energy efficiency. That said, an ideal way to decrease heat loss through the garage is by installing insulated garage doors. Coupled with enhanced energy efficiency, garage door insulation provides a home with multiple advantages, like quieter operation and boosted overall door durability and strength.
Irrespective of your location, energy expenses fluctuate more often. However, in specific cases with temperature changes and extreme weather, owners tend to look into methods to insulate their houses with the desire to alleviate energy costs. More so, the first region looked at is a garage door, which is often labeled as an energy consumer since it is a primary source of energy consumption.
What does the garage need?
If your house has an attached garage area, its door opens multiple times a day, contributing to a temperature leak and more power consumption. So, unless the door is unused, the efforts to insulate garage doors are worth your time. Yet, owners argue whether it is only right to invest in garage door insulation.
In the same breath, insulating doors can introduce your bills with huge earnings. Do you wish to know more? Let’s read more about the same.
Explore garage door insulation options.
While referring to garage door insulations, a few seasonal choices or temporary answers can be valuable. But, some in the list can offer ideal results that can last for an extended duration. Given below are some famous types of insulated garage doors available today that you must consider.
- Foam board insulation: This type utilizes rigid and thin panels, offering high-insulating value.
- Spray foam insulation: One of the prevalent insulation procedures is sprayed around the door to boost the R-value.
- Cellulose insulation: Relatively similar to the spray foam and with ideal results. Remember, very similar to spray foam but with better outcomes for garage doors. However, this type can incur more costs.
- Reflective insulation: This type of insulation uses rigid and thin boards that have reflective foil to deter heat.
- Fiberglass insulation: Did you know this is an affordable insulation form? This insulation is usually applied to the interior face to increase the R-value.
Understand insulated garage doors
Over and above insulation procedures, a few owners transformed their garage doors from scratch with an insulated door. Instead of a conventional metal one, these are fiberglass access points accompanied by a foam core that tends to alleviate energy loss from the garage area.
So, if you are trying to check if insulating the garage door is all you care about with time and money, checking insulated doors is an ideal approach. But before that, understand and acknowledge the issue.
What is the R-value?
An R-value in the construction sector refers to the insulation effectiveness that stops the heat flow in the opposite direction of conductance. Suppose the average building will get an R-value of 20. In that case, installing fiberglass insulation will boost the ratings to 35.
But how does the R-value affect the rating? How does it fluctuate in the first place? Because of multiple processes utilized among manufacturers, the garage door’s R-value will not be absolute, although it’ll be relatively precise and concise. If you have your eyes on the garage door rated R-18, and you get another brand giving an R-20 door, do not purchase it blindly. Both those garage doors may offer similar insulation levels. In the end, look for what ingredients were used in the manufacturing process of the door and then decide.
How are garage doors insulated?
Several doors are insulated through polystyrene layers, also called Styrofoam, which is available in several densities. The denser the ingredients, the more insulation it offers. As already discussed, the most significantly rated garage doors utilize polyurethane blended within the steel layers. If you did not know, polyurethane is known as an A-class insulation. Based on the research by the NIST, such a kind of insulation decreased air leakage by approximately 80% and alleviated energy drain by 40%.
Is insulating your garage worth it?
Even though the process makes a difference in energy savings, it all comes down to varying factors. But before anything else, ask yourself these questions:
- Is the garage attached to your home?
- Do you reside in a region with significant temperature transformation?
- Do your pets reside in the garage?
- Is your garage space used as one of the workspaces at home?
- Are you selling your house any time soon?
If the answer is yes…
If it’s yes to two questions, consider insulating the garage door. On the contrary, even if the door rarely opens, but you still use the designated space as a gym or workspace, insulated doors can maintain the temperature.
As a result, it’s the right time for you to think about what needs to be done next. However, your first priority should be to administer the mentioned questions in order. Even though your energy bills are not soaring through the sky, it’s important to keep the figures under check.
If the answer is no…
If your answer is yes to 3-4 questions, invest in something other than insulated doors. Unless you change a few things within the space, investing in such a system might incur unnecessary costs.
The verdict
A more likely result is insulating the garage area, especially insulating walls connecting the outer space to the house. It implies insulating the ceiling to negate energy loss, insulating the borders, and securing the windows and floor to eliminate air gaps. Ultimately, while performing this, consider insulating garage doors before anything goes wrong with the energy bills. Remember, it’s your decision. And the decision should be based on your requirements and lifestyle. Take into account the usage of your garage, how you use the space, and specific temperatures within.
Author Bio
A content specialist in different niches from last 5 years. She likes to read and travel in her free time.She has worked with Elite Garage Door & Gate Repair .
