As you approach a front door to someone’s home you might notice the kind of door they have. It may be a solid door with a peep hole or it may have a lavish glass oval window with engraved patterns set into a wooden door. Either way, it is one of the items that makes our impression on the home and the nicer the door the better the impression.
Most people are now very security conscious and they take great strides to secure their homes and make sure they are more like fortresses nowadays. At the back of our homes we are just as conscious, but there are limits to how aesthetically attractive our home can remain with all the heavy doors that we might need. Many homes have huge sunrooms and extensions with patio doors. The patio door glass is heavily reinforced so that simply banging it won’t cause a problem or a breakage.
The Heat Benefits of Patio Doors
Because patio doors are made from glass they can have beneficial properties to help with the heating of your home. Glass doors have an energy rating that defines their ability to contain heat within the home. This rating is known as the U-factor, connected to it non-solar heat flowing conducting abilities. There are also the SHGC—solar heat gain coefficient—ratings by which heat from the sun is directly absorbed or transmitted. Some glass doors are also rating on the total amount of air leakage per square foot.
Generally, if all those factors are perfectly aligned your home should never have a draft, the sun would heat your entire home based on how many hours per day it shines and your patio doors would act as insulation. Of course, that’s all in a perfect world, but you can efficiently heat your home with the help of well-made and properly installed glass doors, provided that they meet the energy efficient standards. Having a south facing room with glass will certainly contribute to the heat loss reduction. Also, proper attic and wall insulation helps to reduce home heat loss and lagging your pipes can also help keep your pipes from cracking during winter. Any glass door that helps radiate heat into the house will contribute to you saving on your energy bills.
