Garage doors and power garage door openers consume a lot of electricity. According to Popular Mechanics, the average household garage door opening and closing about three to five times per day adds up to about 1,500 times each year on average. In this article, we will share five tips for reducing your garage’s electrical consumption and the overall energy efficiency of your garage doors.
1. Check your current residential garage door opener’s horsepower rating. To determine the door opener’s horsepower, look at the unit. For example, if you have a 1/2 or 3/4 hp opener, you can replace it with either a 1/3 or a 1/4 hp model, respectively. A new garage door opener will use much less electricity –in some cases; they will use less electricity than your current opener’s light bulb!
2. Replace garage door openers with a solar-powered model. However, if your garage door is higher than 7 feet, it may require a more powerful unit. At A1 Door Company, we can help you choose the right door opening system for your garage doors.
3. Make sure all the doors in your home are adequately balanced and adjusted to fit tightly, with no more than a 1/4″ gap between them or between the door and frame. Entries that do not seal well allow cold air to escape and warm air to enter – causing drafts and higher utility bills.
4. Set the opening and closing force on your door to match the weight of your door, or consult with a professional garage door installer or repair person. If the setting is higher than necessary, your garage door opener will use more electricity to open and close your door. It may also be more challenging to operate the door by hand.
5. Make sure your door is sealed to the frame using weather stripping or other material, if necessary. Holes or gaps around the bottom of the door allow the warm air from your home to escape outside in winter and cool air inside in summer, which wastes energy both ways.
A bonus tip is to replace regular, incandescent light bulbs in your garage with fluorescent or LED bulbs to save energy.
When your garage doors are more energy-efficient, they provide a solid separation between the air in your garage and the environment outdoors by creating as tight a seal as possible. When your garage doors are more energy-efficient, not only will you save on utility bills, but you will also be doing your part to protect the environment.
Another way you can increase the energy efficiency of your entire garage, especially if it is attached to your home, is to replace the weatherstripping around the door that connects your living space from the garage. When you apply weatherstripping to your garage door or replace the worn-out weatherstripping that was there, you are not only preventing air from escaping from the garage and air from the outdoors seeping inside, but it also guards against water seeping into the garage.
A1 Door Company can help you make your garage doors more energy efficient and secure wherever you might be in the Richmond area. Contact us and ask about our garage repair services and new garage door installations.
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