Energy Savers: Windows, Doors, Skylights

When you think about your house, the windows, doors, and skylights seem more than an necessity, they make your house a home. We all personalize them accordingly to our own taste, but we often forget the fact that they are a significant factor for our house to also be energy efficient. Keeping that in mind will help you reduce cooling and lighting costs, especially now with summer coming our way. After all, what most of us want is to feel comfortable in our own home.

Before you change your windows, doors and skylights with others that are more energy efficient, we would recommend you to do an energy performance test on them. Depending on their ratings, your next step would be to compare the available alternative products and choose the ones that are more efficient.

Here are some tips on how to choose your new windows, doors and skylights to make the upcoming heat bearable, while saving money and energy.

The windows:

• Install white window shades, drapes, or blinds to reflect heat away from the house.
• Close curtains on south- and west-facing windows during the day.
• Install awnings on south- and west-facing windows.
• Apply sun-control or other reflective films on south-facing windows to reduce solar heat gain.

The doors:

In general the new types of doors are significantly more energy efficient that the older types. Although the options are many, we would recommend a specific type of door.

The exterior door with a steel skin and a polyurethane foam insulation core would be the most energy efficient. It usually includes a magnetic strip (similar to a refrigerator door magnetic seal) as well as weather_stripping. If installed correctly and not bent, this type of door needs no further weather_stripping, so you won’t have to worry about anything else, except for the color of the door.

When it comes to the skylights:

Skylights are one of the cheapest ways to keep cool during summer while also making a positive impact in the environment, but there are some things you should consider in order to make the most out them.

First of all, even the most energy-efficient skylights might have a low performance, so installation must be done properly. Skylights are located on the roof, so it’s easy for them to cause unwanted summertime solar heat. The position plays a big role in their performance, as well as their physical size. When it comes to the material used on glazing, new technologies are being used in order to reduce their impact, including heat-absorbing tints, insulated glazing, and low-emissivity (low-e) coatings.