How to Ensure Your Garage Door Installation is Energy Efficient

During the course of choosing your new garage door, you'll likely look at the aesthetics, the material, and the cost. When it comes to garage door installation, you also have an excellent opportunity to explore energy-saving benefits. Examining how you can save energy will allow you to get more from your garage door in the long term, especially if you want to lower your bills. One way to achieve this is through insulation. 

Why Insulation Matters

Overall, garages are less insulated than many other areas of your house. This means they're particularly vulnerable to heat and cold escaping, posing energy efficiency problems throughout the year. While you're battling to keep your house cool in the summer, your HVAC is working against your garage letting the heat in. Similarly, when you're trying to stay warm in the winter, your garage might allow the cold in.

Fluctuations in temperatures aren't just important for making the remainder of your home efficient. If you use your garage to store temperature-sensitive items, it might not be doing the job well. As such, you need to address potential insulation issues where you can. 

Insulation and Energy Efficiency

Insulating your garage door is a quick and easy way to achieve greater energy efficiency. Adding insulation reduces thermal loss, which in turn prevents unnecessarily high bills and inappropriate temperatures. An energy-efficient garage door installation also impacts any living spaces that are above or alongside the garage. For example, if you have a bedroom above the garage that becomes uncomfortably chilly when temperatures drop, adding insulation to your garage door makes it easier to keep a comfortable temperature. 

Understanding the R-Value

If installing an energy-efficient garage door is something you choose to go ahead with, you'll need to understand the R-value. The R-value represents how energy efficient your prospective insulation is. The higher the R-value, the greater the energy efficiency. Different types of insulation come with different R-values. For example, a combination of aluminium foil and polyethene is likely to provide the best r-value when you live in a very hot climate.

Assessing Cost Benefits

When your overall aim for making your garage door more energy efficient is to save money, you'll need to assess the cost benefits. Naturally, choosing a more efficient door means paying a higher upfront cost. However, if you can offset those costs against lower energy bills over time, your investment will be worth it.

To learn more, contact a garage door installation professional.