An energy-efficient garage keeps your home comfortable and reduces your monthly energy bills. Insulation and tight seals around your doors, windows and walls prevent warm air inside from leaking outside. These components also prevent cold air drafts from coming into your home in the winter.
If you’re wondering how to make your garage more energy efficient, these tips can help. Your garage is part of the rest of your house, so any drafts or changes in temperature can affect your kitchen, living room and bedrooms as well. If you have a detached garage, you may want to increase its energy efficiency to make it more useful as an office or an accessory dwelling unit (ADU). Keep the following energy-saving tips for the garage in mind as you renovate your space.
1. Insulate Your Garage Door, Walls and Ceiling
One of the most effective ways to save energy in your garage is to install insulation. This durable material acts as a thermal barrier against outdoor temperatures and humidity. Look for a product with a high R-value to provide maximum protection from cold air drafts. Consider insulating the following parts of your garage:
- Garage door: The garage door protects the garage from outdoor weather conditions, but cracks, small openings and outdated insulation can bring the cold air inside. You could either purchase an insulation kit from your local hardware store or invest in a brand-new insulated garage door. A kit features double-bubble radiant or foam board insulation, but an insulated garage door features polyurethane or polystyrene layers. Though installing insulation yourself may be more affordable, it won’t be as effective as buying a new garage door.
- Garage walls: Besides insulating the garage door, you can also apply insulation to the walls to maximize your home’s energy efficiency. If you have an older home, there might not be enough insulation in your garage. Choose the appropriate R-value for your insulation based on where you live. As you install insulation on your walls, you may also want to insulate the light switches and outlets.
- Garage ceiling: Since warm air rises, the heat from your furnace or space heater could travel upward and outside if your garage doesn’t have adequate insulation. To prevent this loss of energy, you may want to install insulation on the ceiling. When you have a protective barrier at the top of your garage, the heat from your HVAC system will stay inside, creating a comfortable place when you get out of your car and enter your home.
2. Use Caulk or Sealant to Seal Gaps
To save energy in the garage, seal the gaps around your doors and windows. The various building materials in your garage can expand and shrink when exposed to fluctuating temperatures. As a result, air from your HVAC system can escape through the holes, leaks, cracks and other openings to the outside.
Follow these tips for sealing gaps in the various parts of your garage:
- Inspect the walls, door and windows: Look around your garage for gaps and openings around your walls, door and windows. Note where you see worn-out window frames and cracks in the walls so you know where you need to apply the sealant.
- Clean the openings: Before you start sealing the gaps around your doors and windows, clean the area to ensure a proper seal. You can clean grime and dirt off the tracks with a vinegar solution in a spray bottle, then wipe the space with a paper towel.
- Use silicone or foam sealant: To seal the gaps in your garage door and windows, apply a thin bead of silicone caulk or foam sealant. These small materials fit in your doors and window cracks to prevent heat from leaving your garage in the winter. Put the sealer on the window and door’s interior and exterior to guard against drafts in both directions.
- Only caulk the top and sides: Instead of caulking the entire window, only apply the silicone to the trim at the top and sides. Leaving the bottom unsealed will prevent dripping water from coming inside and allow condensation to escape.
3. Apply an Epoxy Coating to Your Garage Floor
Besides sealing your doors and windows, you can also make your garage more energy efficient by sealing the floor. Cracks in your concrete floor may be leaking heat into the ground underneath your property. Filling in these fractures will help you stay warm in the winter. Follow these tips for sealing your garage floor:
- Clean your garage floor: To clear debris off your concrete floor, use a power washer filled with a specialized cleaner. After spreading the detergent, scrub the floor with a push broom and rinse the soap off the surface. Wait for the floor to dry before applying the sealant.
- Coat your garage floor with epoxy: You can use an epoxy coating to cover minor imperfections in the concrete. Spread the product evenly across the garage floor with a paint pad. Refer to the manufacturer’s instructions for how long you should let the coating soak in and dry before putting your car or other valuables back into the garage.
- Fill in cracks with a sandable compound: Use a sandable crack-filling product to fill in significant gaps. When this substance cures and hardens, it becomes stronger than concrete and prevents water from leaking into the fractures.
4. Seal the Door That Connects Your House to the Garage
As you inspect your garage for imperfections, check the door that leads into the central part of your home. If you have an attached garage, the drafts from the garage can blow in through gaps in the door, affecting your kitchen, dining room, living room or bedroom. You can seal your door using any of the following methods:
- Update the weatherstripping: The weatherstripping around the entire door frame should be intact to keep drafts out of your main living area. To check whether your door has any openings, you can turn off the light in your garage and look for light shining through from the other side. If you see the light from the primary part of your house, apply weatherstripping around the door frame to create a tight, energy-efficient seal.
- Put in a draft stopper: The threshold under your door should be sturdy, but after excessive use, it tends to lose its quality. If this component doesn’t have a proper seal, you can put in a draft stopper as a temporary solution. For a few more dollars, you can also have a professional replace the door’s threshold.
- Caulk or seal small openings: You may also want to apply a sealant to any small gaps around the door, including the interior and exterior trim. This decorative trim should have a proper seal around it. Over the years, the vinyl or wood can expand and contract as the temperature changes.
5. Update Your Lighting
You may live in an older home, or you may not have renovated your property in a while. In that case, your lighting might be outdated and using more energy than necessary. Switching to LED lights is a simple upgrade for a more efficient and eco-friendly garage.
Instead of lighting your garage with incandescent or fluorescent bulbs, using LED lights can save you money on energy costs. An LED bulb generates the same amount of light and uses about 75% less energy than an incandescent one. Since energy-efficient light bulbs have a longer life span, you’ll save money on resources over time. You may also want to invest in a light timer to automatically turn off your lights when you’re not using them.
6. Install Energy-Efficient Windows
You might want to replace the windows in your garage. Energy-efficient glass panes help you save money on your energy bills and make your living space more comfortable. Your windows can let in a lot of moisture and drafts if they’ve lost their seal, contributing to 25% to 30% of residential heating and cooling energy use.
When shopping for energy-efficient windows, look for these qualities:
- Multiple window glass panes: Your windows will be more energy efficient if they have two or three glass panes sandwiched together with spaces between them. The gaps create pockets that have a tight seal to prevent air leaks.
- Durable window frame materials: Look for sturdy, long-lasting window frames. Wood, clad-wood, vinyl or fiberglass window frames have high insulation qualities to help reduce air drafts and keep your garage warmer in the winter.
- Low-E glass coatings: Low-emissivity coatings can keep the inside of your home warm by controlling how the heat from the sunlight enters through your windows. An exterior Low-E coating prevents heat from coming into your home while still allowing sunlight inside. Similarly, the heat from your furnace doesn’t escape through your windows to the outside.
- Window gas fills: Energy-efficient windows contain argon or krypton between the glass to increase their resistance to the weather conditions outside. These gases are colorless, odorless and non-toxic, so they won’t harm your garage’s indoor air quality.
- Window spacers: Your energy-efficient windows will have spacers installed within them at the perfect distance apart to reduce heat transfer. This energy-efficient feature keeps heat from your furnace inside your garage instead of leaking outside.
If you’re looking for a more affordable alternative to new windows, use silicone caulk or weatherstripping along the trim and frames to make them more resistant to heat transfer.
7. Organize Your Garage Storage
Reducing the clutter in your garage can help make it more energy efficient. If there are piles of junk on the floor or shelves, you may invite pests into your property. Insects and rodents chew through insulation and wires, posing a threat to your HVAC system and making your living space much less comfortable. With clutter in your garage, you may not notice a pest infestation until it’s too late.
Clutter may also make it challenging to keep the temperature comfortable. Boxes and piles of papers may block HVAC or dryer vents, putting more of a strain on your appliances. You may want to invest in garage storage units or a shed to clear up some space. Here are some steps you can take to declutter and organize your garage:
- Clear out your garage: The best time to organize your garage is when the weather is pleasant. On a sunny day, you can bring your belongings to your driveway to sort through them. In the winter, you can use a few bins to keep everything in one place. While your floor is empty, you may want to vacuum, sweep or apply an epoxy coating.
- Sort your items: Throw away all trash, such as loose pieces of paper and dead insects. Then, create piles to keep, trash, relocate and donate for the rest of your belongings. You may want to go through every box and shelf to find items you may have forgotten were in the garage.
- Split the garage into zones: After figuring out what things you want to keep in the garage, split them into categories, such as tools, car equipment and office supplies. Grouping like items together allows you to determine how much room you’ll need for each zone.
- Be creative with your storage: Make the most out of the space in your garage by organizing your belongings strategically. Install shelves, hooks and cabinets on your walls, ceiling and floor to leave room for your car. You should also store toxic, dangerous items in locked cabinets far from reach of children.
- Regularly maintain your garage: After you’ve established a storage system that works for you, create a schedule for cleaning your garage. Clutter may pile up over time, but you can follow a cleaning routine to save time and make the process more manageable. In addition to picking up loose items, sweep your garage floor and look for potential places where pests can hide.
Get Insulated Garage Doors From Continental Door
Following these garage energy efficiency tips can help make your living space more comfortable and save you money on your monthly expenses. To make your garage more energy efficient, consider installing a brand-new garage door with polyurethane or polystyrene insulation. This durable material goes between your garage door panels to protect your home against outdoor elements.
Continental Door has a wide variety of insulated garage door options among our residential garage door products available in Spokane and Northern Idaho. We’ll help you find the ideal product for your home to keep you warm in the winter, and we’ll install it with a tight seal to keep out cold air. For more information about how to make your garage more comfortable, reach out to us online or call 509-921-2260.
