Garages can consume massive amounts of energy, becoming major factors on your energy bill. However, this isn’t necessary; there’s tons of accessories on the market and adoptable practices that can help you significantly make the energy expenditure in your garage more efficient, thus lowering your energy bill in the process. Here’s some tips on how to do so, from the Garage Door repair experts at Garage Doors Chicago.
Wood End Blocks
This material can help keep insulation in place, and make sure that hinges are attached to the door’s ends. Using weatherstripping or glue joints, the outside and inside metal sheets are sealed together. End blocks have a major effect on energy efficiency – as they conduct and transfer heat much less than the normal steel end caps that seal the gap in the garage door, which transfers heat inside or outside. Wood doesn’t transfer heat, ensuring heat isn’t lost in the Winter, and can not enter in the Summer.
Weather Sealed Door Joints
Usually the joints of the garage door are protected by using metal staples, reinforced with glue, to hold the steel sheets in place. This metal also causes unduly heat transfer – so doors that are reinforced with multiple layers of PVC as a weatherseal increase energy efficiency by making a break between the outer and inner metal layers of the garage joints, eliminating the effects of thermal bridging.
Outer and Lower Weatherstripping
You want multiple layers of high quality weatherstripping on the outside and the lower part of the garage door. Cold weather makes cheap PVC weatherstripping crack, so try to get high quality, multi layer weatherstripping – and consider acquiring weatherstripping made of a Thermoplastic Elastomer, which is much more resistant to temperature based warping.
Garage Energy Efficiency Factors to Consider:
In order to get your garage as energy efficient as possible, you will need to tackle every possible layer from inside to outside. Combined efforts of multiple upgrades – as well as consciousness paid to how long lights / power strips / any electrical item is left turned on inside your garage – is the only way to reduce your garage based energy bill as much as possible. Like garage security, garage energy efficiency requires a holistic, maximalist, and multi-layered approach to achieve superior results.