That’s why we write blogs like this and you go out and do energy audits. The average person doesn’t know how their home works or how heat flows or how much the different components contribute to their energy bills. Thanks for all the great comments so far! Keep ’em coming. Now if you would pardon me while I open up to enjoy my full view of the sun now that the temperature has gone from 40 degrees earlier this morning to a balmy 70 (which is warmer than the thermostat setting). In short, the comfort and enjoyment of a storm door – and the improvement in heat transmission reduction or insultation value is too often significant to disgard this option. Some folks really like the option of having sun stream in via south facing doors in the winter time, or getting more light via shaded doors in the warmer months. Besides, some folks really like their old wood doors. The insulation value of many exterior doors can be substantially improved by a properly installed storm door which in some cases can add more R/U improvement that a replacement door. Even a 1/16 inch gap along one border is greater than a 2 square inch hole. For example: the air and heat/cold infiltration of many doors – even with added weatherstripping – is significant. seals well, with enough insulation value to potentially achieve a 40% improvement in U value) to be a significant improvement. In short, there are too many, common exceptions that make that make the option of a quality (i.e. Photo of storm door by Corey Ann from, used under a Creative Commons license.ĭo not agree that a storm door is NOT a wise improvement… (By the way, Ira, if you’re looking for someone to discuss building science on your show, I could find some time for you. Sealing the air leaks is the place to start. Go with the caulk, spray foam, mastic, and weatherstripping first. In the house above, the payback on a $200 storm door would be at least 20 years. I’m not a big fan of looking at payback (and if you’re financing, payback is irrelevant), but the payback on a storm door is not very good. In that house, the heating and cooling loads due to the doors in the house added up to only 1% of the total. It’s from a home energy rating for an energy hog of a house in Atlanta. The main reason it won’t save you much energy is that, you don’t have a lot of energy use associated with your doors. A standard door doesn’t have a lot of R-value, but it has more than a single pane of glass. In fact, you may use more energy if you do what so many do and leave the main door open and use your new storm door as a single pane window. Those are better reasons than getting one to save energy because they won’t do a whole lot for you. If you want a storm door to protect your door or for looks or because everyone else is doing it, fine. Here’s why I don’t recommend storm doors for saving energy. They mentioned other items afterward that were better, but a storm door? Really, Ira? So, what does this have to do with storm doors, you’re wondering? Well, in the show, the very first home energy efficiency improvement mentioned on Science Friday was installing a storm door. If you want to take advantage of this federal tax credit, you need to do it soon. Maybe Congress will extend it again, or maybe they won’t. The whole point of the latest edition of Science Friday was to make their listeners aware that this tax credit is expiring at the end of 2011. It’s not great, but it’s something, so if you can get it, you should. It used to be $1500 and 30% of the cost, but they reduced it to $500 and 10% of the cost for this year. This past Friday, they covered a topic near and dear to my heart: the federal tax credit for home energy efficiency improvements.īriefly, you can get up to $500 as a tax credit (which is real money, as opposed to a tax deduction) for home energy efficiency measures you pay for. It’s always interesting, and you get to learn cool new science stuff. Although I rarely get to listen to it these days, I love the show Science Friday with Ira Flatow on NPR.
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