Make Your Garage More Energy-Efficient in 5 Simple Ways

Sure this may sound somewhat surprising, but your garage plays a vital role in the overall energy efficiency of your home. Unfortunately, most people tend to focus on their non-garage living spaces when it comes to minimizing their energy consumption because they believe they’re not spending a lot of time in it.

However, since your garage is still part of your abode, what happens inside it with regard to energy consumption will eventually affect your whole home. And if your garage is not designed to be energy-efficient, chances are your utility bills will skyrocket before you know it.

Making your garage more energy-efficient is not that tricky, though. Read on to find out how you can pull the whole thing off easily.

Having an Insulated garage door is essential.

When it comes to taking your garage’s energy efficiency up a notch, the most crucial factor to have on your checklist is getting a well insulated garage door, or giving your existing garage door some extra insulation. So you really have two choices here. First, you can buy an insulation kit, or second, purchase a ready-made insulated garage door from your local garage door supplier.

An insulated garage door is typically made from aluminum and can either block or absorb cold and hot air from the outside. Compared to using an insulation kit where a bit of elbow grease is needed, an insulated garage door can be immediately installed right out of the box with minimal effort.

While you can easily take care of this task regardless of your choice if you’re an avid DIY-er, make sure you contact a professional garage door technician if you are not that confident of getting the job done.

Check the weatherstripping on your garage door regularly.

Another thing you need to bear in mind is to regularly check if the weatherstripping on your garage door is still in tiptop shape. On a related note, if you still don’t have weatherstripping on your garage door, then better have it applied as soon as possible since it can do many wonders to your garage and your power bill.

At its simplest, weatherstripping works by sealing leaks and holes in and around your garage door that could meddle with your home’s overall temperature. When these leaks and holes are properly sealed, your garage will have a more consistent temperature, and you won’t have to use as much energy while at it, too.

Make sure you replace the weatherstripping on your garage door as soon as you can when it’s already starting to crack and brittle to the touch.

Seal openings around walls, floors, and ceiling.

Apart from sealing leaks and holes in and around your garage door, it’s also essential to take care of the ones on the ceiling, floors, and walls. They, too, can hurt your energy consumption if not taken care of properly.

Many people are inclined to ignore these holes and leaks since they are usually tiny in size. However, the problem is that these tend to get bigger and bigger whenever water seeps into them eventually. Therefore, the sooner you’ll be able to seal these problem areas, the better.

Go for LED lights.

To clarify, “LED” stands for “light-emitting diode,” a type of semiconductor that produces light when it gets in contact with an electrical current.

Now we’ve got that covered, these lighting options are designed to last for up to more than 20 times compared to their incandescent counterparts and only use about a fraction of the energy required to boot.

Sure LED lights may be a bit more expensive than their incandescent cousins, but spending the extra bucks now is all worth it since the savings you’ll get in the long run are going to be significant.

Unplug that extra freezer if unused.

Did you know that a lot of people have an extra freezer lying around the garage? Unfortunately, while this may look like a brilliant idea if you’re running low on kitchen storage, it has the opposite effect when it comes to energy usage. So consider unpluging that extra freezer if you’re not using it.