Are you struggling to lessen the energy cost of your home? Know that the culprit behind this could be your garage. A garage that has a room above it could use too much energy so that cold air could not pass through its walls. As a result, your heating system could work harder, hence, increasing your home’s energy consumption.

Now, what you need to do so that you will have an energy efficient garage is to invest in a good insulator. When talking about insulators, do you know the difference between R-Value and U-Value? In this article, you will learn a guide to your garage door insulation.

Understanding the R-Value of Heat Loss

The most popular measurement that is used for garage door insulators is the R-value. This measurement tells you the effectivity of a certain insulation material in preventing or stopping the heat loss. The common insulation materials that are measured here are the polystyrene and the polyurethane. Note that the higher R-value an insulator has, the better thermal efficiency the material contains.

One thing that you should understand regarding R-value is that it only measures a specific material’s thermal efficiency and not your whole door. Manufacturers usually measure the R-value of a garage door in the center of its panel. This is because the insulation in this part is the thickest.

You should also note that a material with an R-16 value is not as twice as an insulating material as an R-8 value. Know that this only means that the R-16 value could reduce 95% of heat loss while R-8 could reduce 90%. So, know that the difference of the numbers is not as great as what it seems to be.

Understanding the U-Value of Heat Transfer

This measurement is not usually used by most manufacturers. However, it debatably measures the thermal efficiency of a garage door more accurately.

As stated above, R-values measure the heat loss rate while U-values measure the heat transfer rate. U-value could also obtain the thermal efficiency of a garage door unlike the R-value where it measures only the material. Moreover, it also factors in the rate of how heat passes through an insulating foam, a primary material, and a metal hardware. And lastly, it takes account the amount of heat that escapes because of air leakages around the door’s edges.

To simply put, U-value could give you a more accurate measurement of the thermal efficiency of your garage door. So, next time you plan to purchase a garage door, see to it that you check this out. If you want to check garage doors with a good U-value and R-value, just call Direct Service Overhead Garage Door Company.

Planning to modify your garage door to add beauty to your home? Learn about the 3 Splendid Ways You Can Do to Modify Your Garage Door.