The Best Types of Garage Doors for Energy Efficiency
Broomfield garage door insulation is incredibly underrated. The perks of having an energy efficient garage door range from saving money on electricity bills, enjoying your garage more, increasing the value of your home- and more.
A Better Garage Door offers thousands of options of energy efficient doors that are all American made. You can’t do any better than that!
Why You Should Have an Insulated Garage Door
Energy Efficiency
Insulated garage doors do a great job of keeping your garage warm in the winter and cool in the summer, which helps you save money on your bills and also improves comfort.
You’re much more likely to spend time in your garage if it isn’t causing you to shiver or sweat. An energy efficient garage door can change your entire relationship with your garage.
Look through our garage door sales for energy efficient garage doors. You won’t regret it!
Sound Absorption
An insulated garage door dampens noise both entering and leaving your garage.
If you have a shop set up in your garage, an insulated door means you can work early or late without bothering your neighbors.
Likewise, your neighbor can mow their lawn at 7 am and you can be unphased while doing laundry.
Stronger Doors
Insulated garage doors are stronger than doors that aren’t insulated. They’re less prone to damages and dents and will last longer against sun, rain, and wind.
That extra layer of garage door insulation creates a sturdy backbone for your door and helps it last longer.
Greater Home Value
If you’re planning on selling your home, you might want to consider garage door insulation.
Insulated garage doors offer much more variety to choose from when considering things such as material, style, and color.
In addition, their energy efficiency is a great selling point and is sure to impress potential buyers.
How Is Energy Efficiency Measured?
R-value and U-value are the two units of measurement to tell you everything you need to know about a door’s insulation.
R-value lets you know how effective an insulating material is at preventing heat loss, while U-value tells you how effective the whole door’s assembly is at preventing heat loss.
U-values paint a bigger picture since they take all factors into consideration, but most garage doors are promoted with their R-value.
Higher R-values mean that the door is more thermally efficient. Well-insulated garages usually have doors with a minimum R-value of R-11.
U-values are the reverse- a lower U-value points to better thermal efficiency.
Types of Garage Doors
There are many different kinds of garage doors to choose from. This list should help aid your confusion so you understand what you’re looking at when scrolling through our garage door sales.
Up and Over Garage Doors
Up and over doors can’t be partially opened the way a side-hinged garage door can be. Therefore, all the heat escapes and the cold air enters when they’re opened.
While this sounds nice for those hot summer days, it will wreck your energy bill in the winter.
Timber Garage Doors
Timber garage doors are inherently insulated due to their thick wood.
Timber garage doors can be environmentally friendly as well as energy efficient if the wood is harvested ethically. Some companies exclusively make their timber garage doors out of the wood of fallen trees.
Cedar and Redwood are common varieties of timber garage doors.
GRP Garage Doors
GRP doors are one of the most low-maintenance types of garage doors. It's naturally insulating and incredibly strong.
GRP is translucent because it is a glass fiber mat. It can have a high gloss finish or reflect woodgrain based on the gel-coated front-facing layer. GRP can also color match and be painted.
Roller Garage Doors
Roller garage doors tend to be about 20mm thick- too thin to be very well insulated. You can add brush weather seals or rubber, as well as insulated slats, to increase the insulation of a roller door.
Steel Garage Doors
Steel garage doors have a lot of benefits, but energy efficiency isn’t one of them. You need to add insulation to steel doors to make them more energy efficient.
Garage Door Construction
There are three types of garage door construction.
Single-layered
Single-layered doors don’t leave much room for insulation and are the least energy efficient.
They are stamped from a single sheet of metal. Along with being the least energy efficient, they are also the most prone to dents.
They are the most affordable type of construction because they have the least amount of materials and the least intensive manufacturing process.
Double-layered
Double-layered doors use polystyrene insulation and are a step up from single-layered doors. They are the most common kind of garage door.
In addition to the main sheet used to stamp the door, they also have a backer and galvanized steel skin.
A backer is a thick layer of insulation on the back of your door.
Triple-layered
Triple-layered doors use polyurethane insulation and are the most energy efficient.
Polyurethane is an insulation that is a liquid foam and expands after injection. This fills every gap in the garage door. It has double the R-value per inch than traditional insulation does.
Although they are the most expensive upfront, they have the lowest cost in the long run because they will last and are not likely to need repairs.
All you need to do is Google “garage door installers near me” and you can have a triple-layer garage door up in no time!