With today’s rising energy costs, investing in an insulated garage door can be just as valuable as upgrading to energy efficient appliances, entry doors and windows elsewhere in your home. Insulated garage doors help keep utility costs down, and they have a huge impact on the comfort of the garage, which is important as people increasingly utilize the space for more than just storage. Why Garage Door Insulation Matters Garages are more susceptible to temperature fluctuations given how often they are opened and closed. Replacing an older garage door with a new, energy efficient model can keep an unheated garage 10 -20 degrees warmer on a cold winter day. Since attached garages typically share one or two common walls with the house, any hot or cold air that travels through the garage door will ultimately reach the living areas adjacent or above. An insulated garage door can help stabilize temperatures to reduce energy loss through the garage by up to 71percent, according to a study conducted by engineers at Clopay Building Products, the nation’s largest manufacturer of residential garage doors. Here are the basics to help you choose the right insulated garage doors for your home: Construction Steel garage doors offer the broadest range of insulation options and price points. ? A single-layer garage door is made of one layer of non-insulated steel. ? Two-layer garage doors feature a layer of insulation combined with an outer steel skin for added comfort, energy efficiency and quiet operation. ? Three-layer garage doors are the most durable construction with insulation sandwiched between two layers of steel for excellent energy efficiency, strength, durability and quietest operation. Insulation Type There are two different types of insulation used in garage doors: expanded polystyrene and polyurethane. ? Expanded polystyrene insulation offers good thermal performance and strength. It consists of rigid panels pressure bonded to the garage door sections during manufacturing. ? Polyurethane foamed-in-place insulation delivers twice the thermal performance of polystyrene insulation of the same thickness. That’s because of the way the insulation expands during the garage door manufacturing process to tightly fill the cavity between the two steel panels as it chemically bonds to the skins of the door. It also adds strength and rigidity to the door panels and helps dampen sound transmission. R-value and U-Factor ? “R-value” is a familiar benchmark for shoppers to compare the insulating efficiency of a garage door. The higher the R-value, the more energy efficient the door is. ? “U-factor” is another term related to thermal efficiency that has become familiar to consumers because of the federal stimulus legislation. The lower the U-factor, the more energy efficient the insulation is. Insulated garage doors with a minimum U-factor of 0.30 installed on a homeowner’s primary residence by December 31, 2010 are eligible for a 30% tax credit. Additional criteria apply. Both polystyrene and polyurethane insulated garage doors qualify for the Energy Tax Credit. More details are available at www.clopaydoor.com and www.energystar.gov.
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An overview of the benefits of upgrading to an insulated garage door and the various types of insulated garage doors available.
Mark Westerfield is Director of Product Development and Engineering at Clopay Building Products, North America’s leading residential and commercial garage door manufacturer.
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