Warm garage: New door vs. Old style

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I have a south facing garage door with a full view row of windows in it. I keep my diesel skid steer in it in the winter and note that it will start up on sunny days easily as the sun tends to warm up the garage.

Recently, a salesperson told me that I should install a new insulated garage door. None of these newer doors have anything for windows than some oval peep holes.

I am questioning whether an insulated garage door without windows would keep the garage warmer than a non insulated garage door with windows. The rest of the garage is insulated: R19 in the walls and R38 in the ceiling.

What do you think????

-- Gary from Mn (hpysheep@midwestinfo.com), January 18, 2002

Answers

In either case, remember that keeping your vehicle too warm will seriously decrease its structural lifespan because every time you take it out of the garage (when it is colder out than in) water will condense on every metal part of the vehicle, all throughout the nooks and crannies where even a concientiously applied rust coating will not get at. Over time, this really eats away at the metal, especially in those hard to get at and fix spots.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), January 18, 2002.

Insulation only works if you have something constantly warm or cold to keep constantly warm or cold. Heater/AC running, people breathing, etc. If you don't run anything in the garage, there is nothing to keep warm or cold.

By the way, we leave the door open for a while (even in cold weather) after pulling the car in, just so the fumes can escape to the outside and not into the house. Just a thought.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), January 18, 2002.


Sorry, Soni. I disagree. You get condensation when the surface of the object is colder than the ambient air temperature (like the inside of a window in a warm house, or your glasses outside in cold weather when you breath on them). Old rule - when you've been hunting during cold weather, don't bring your rifle into a warm tent. That will get you condensation on all metal surfaces (well, on all surfaces actually, but not much on ones with low thermal conductivity - like the stock). That condensation on the machinery would be happening when the machine is brought in in the evening - not out in the morning - and not much if the garage was allowed to air out for a while, and then slowly re-heat - again, if necessary. Actually, most of it wouldn't matter - only happens on major structure and panels, and they're built to take rain - moving parts and engine will be warm.

Gary, I'd suspect that you could get insulation close to matching a new door by simple hanging a curtain of bubble-wrap inside your existing door. Or even taping clear plastic across the inside of the windows on the doors, with a bit of an air-gap - if it's even necessary. And you wouldn't be sacrificing the advantage of solar heating.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), January 18, 2002.


That is kind of what I was thinking of Don, but as my former sweetie is a vice president of sales for a garage door company, I started questioning my own thoughts on buying a new door without windows from her or fixing and insulating my old door.

I am really surprised how the inside of the garage on a sunny day can be 30 or 40 degrees warmer than outside. We are talking of 20 degrees F in garage vs -20 degf outside of garage as a result of the solar heating.

I would guess from your thoughts that if I had gone to an insulated garage door without windows, that it would be a real deep freeze.

Conclusionn is, my wanting to fix the old door rather than buy a new door from her was the final straw that caused our break up.

So I guess I made the right choice to keep a warm garage but ended up with a cold heart.

-- Gary from Mn (hpysheep@midwestinfo.com), January 19, 2002.


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