How to Make Doors Energy Efficient

One area where homes are less energy efficient is around doors. Many older doors leak around their edges, and many others are simply not insulated enough to provide good energy efficiency. Making doors energy efficient is one of the most obvious ways to save money on heating and cooling your house.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Use weatherstripping around the perimeter of all doors to increase energy efficiency. Make sure that only one piece of weatherstripping per side is used, and that the weatherstripping is thick enough that when the door is closed against the door jamb, the weatherstripping is firmly pressed between them. Weatherstripping comes in many different widths, thicknesses and materials for doors, and it can be difficult to select without the help of a professional or a published guide.

2. Consider the rating. All doors have energy performance ratings. Check with the United States Department of Energy's Guide to Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy website to see what the maximum rating is for your location (see Resources below).

3. Focus on the energy efficiency of exterior doors, especially if you are constructing a home. Make sure that the door is constructed from steel and fiberglass, as these doors can be more than five times as energy efficient as a wooden door of the same thickness. Many exterior doors also offer a magnetic strip along the frame that provides the same benefit as weatherstripping.

4. Maintain sliding glass doors, since they are the least energy-efficient exterior doors due to their designs. Replace the weatherstripping around sliding glass doors if the design allows it. Also, buying sliding glass doors with such insulating measures as multiple panes of glass, insulating gasses between the panes or reflective coatings on the glass will help to make the doors more energy efficient.

5. Install storm doors over older exterior doors. Materials such as fiberglass, steel and aluminum are common for storm doors, and many of the top models feature low-emissivity glass that can be removed and replaced with a screen during the summer. Storm doors are also available for sliding glass doors.

6. Ensure that all doors have been installed properly. As most new doors are sold in pre-hung frames, make sure that the frame is completely level and square to ensure that the door closes tightly. Sealing the door's frame to the opening in the wall with an expanding foam caulking will also boost energy efficiency.

Resources

• United State Department of Energy's Guide to Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Guide to Doors for ratings information