The Importance of Choosing Eco-Friendly Garage Doors for Your Home
28.10.2019 GREEN LIVING 0.0 0

eco-friendly garage doors

 

Your garage door is the last thing that comes to mind when it comes to thinking of eco-friendly practices in your home. You’d probably think of kitchen appliances first or insulated windows before your garage doors. But, the truth is, you shouldn’t leave garage doors out. Eco-friendly practices in choosing garage doors are as important as they are in the rest of your house.

 

Garage doors are one of the biggest openings in the house. An average door takes up roughly about 400 square feet. The doors have a lot of influence on letting cold air into the house during the winter and hot air during the summer. In fact, 94% of the impact of garage doors on the environment comes from their impact on heat and cold in your house.

 

If your heat, ventilation and air conditioning systems need to work harder to fight heat and cold coming in, this will require more energy. And the increased use of energy that comes from fossil fuels results in the increase in global carbon emissions.

 

Therefore, trying to minimize the draw on your heating and cooling systems is one of the ways to be more eco-friendly. There are more ways to make your garage doors more environment-friendly. Here are some of them.

 

Garage Door Insulation

Reduce the energy draw by insulating your garage doors. Garage doors can take up as much as 30 percent of the front of a home, which is far more than the average front door. It will also help reduce the amount of time you need to run a heater or fan if you do a lot of work there - no more chilly garage during winter or overly warm garage during summer!

 

Though insulation is usually made from foam, you can find insulation made from sustainable materials like cotton fiber.

 

eco-friendly home

 

Consider a Garage Door Without Windows

A garage door with windows will let in more outside air than the one without windows. Buy garage doors without windows to lock in warmed and cooled air.

 

Choose Doors Made from Sustainable Materials

Many modern garage doors are made from sustainable materials like recycled or reclaimed wood or wood pulp.

 

Unlike garage doors that are made from virgin wood, the production of reclaimed or recycled garage doors doesn’t require cutting down more trees.

 

These doors provide great insulation too since the wood materials are combined with wax, resin and other composite materials.

 

Aluminum doors are the least eco-friendly choice. Aluminum is relatively lightweight and thus provides the least insulation. Steel, on the other hand, provides good insulation due to its heaviness and durability.

 

Purchase Environmentally Friendly Garage Door Openers

Garage door openers draw a considerable amount of energy so make sure you think twice when purchasing one. You have two choices to counterbalance that. First, choose an opener designed to use very low power on standby. Second, choose a solar-powered garage door opener.

 

These are just a few of the things you can do to reduce carbon footprint in your home. Keep your home, and especially your garage, eco-friendly!

Written by Mik Vilman

 

 

About the Author

Mik Vilman writes for Canadian Garage Door Repair - a company that provides repair and replacement services for home and business garages.

 

 

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TAGS:Environment, sustainability, eco-friendly home

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