Being a homeowner is an aspiration for many people. While owning your own home is enjoyable, some responsibilities come with it although prospective homeowners are oblivious of them. An essential responsibility is the proper management of your energy use.
With more than 25% of your home’s energy bill being created by air that escapes via skylights, inefficient windows, and glazed doors, you need to develop tactics to keep a watchful eye on efficiency.
Entry doors are one of the significant points of heat loss in your house, and bolstering them is critical to increasing your home’s efficiency. Here’s a look at some insightful ways to keep your entry door from being inefficient.
1. Reinforce the Weatherstripping
Losing energy through your entry doors is quite common. The main factor that leads to this heat loss is the damage, total lack, or breakdown of weatherstripping on the edges of the entry doors.
Weatherstripping is the sealing of doors, trunks, windows, and other similar openings to keep out the elements while retaining heat and air inside. You ought to apply weatherstripping materials on all four sides of the door for total sealing when it closes. As you use the door over time, the weatherstripping will misalign with the door once it happens to shift in its frame. The weatherstripping can also wear down and create gaps.
If you suspect there might be gaps in the weatherstripping and you want to identify them, use cold air to test the edges of your entry doors. When you’re filling in any gaps, there are several options for suitable material. The easier kind of material to work with for weatherstripping is adhesive foam which can come as plastic or rubber. However, the adhesive foam will only last for up to three years.
Felt is another weatherstripping material you can use to seal your entry door. The only disadvantage with it is that it will compress over time and create some gaps. For a more heavy-duty material, you can use interlocking metal stripping though you will have to bring in an exterior door expert to fit it for you.
2. Alter the Threshold
The threshold at the bottom of your entry doors helps keep out dirt and debris that the wind might blow in or someone might end up tracking to the house. Just like other parts of your exterior doors, thresholds do wear out.
When left unattended, the wear and tear will lead to gaps, which in turn negatively affects your energy efficiency. Make it a routine to inspect the thresholds and repair them when you notice any wear and tear.
3. Double Glaze the Glass
When you have a modern door that features glass panels, you need to ensure that the glass is energy efficient. Double-glazing the glass panes in the door will help keep heat and air in while restricting the cold air out. That is because the panes feature two glass layers separated by a layer of air which increase the energy efficiency by retaining more air indoors.
4. Repair the Door
Once you inspect your door and find that despite the weatherstripping being in place, the door is still causing energy loss, there are other repairs you can do.
Begin by inspecting the door to see if it still sits in its frame correctly. If you notice that it squeaks or sticks when you close it, then you need to realign the door with the frame. Remove any dirt stuck along the frame and clean the hinges.
Tighten any loose screws and check if that will pull the door back into alignment with the frame. Do not forget to inspect the caulking around the door frame for any signs of decay that will create gaps.
Conserve Your Energy
Your entry door is one of the significant areas of energy loss in the home. To prevent your door from causing energy loss, you need to take intermediate measures to repair it while looking at more substantial ideas like fitting new features. Work on your doorway to ultimately spend less on your energy bill.
