Skip to content 
With the cost of living rising daily, finding ways to reduce overheads is more crucial than ever. One way to reduce your expenses is to have an energy-efficient home. And an insulated garage door is one key aspect of an energy-efficient home.
An insulated garage door with a decent R-value can significantly improve your home’s energy efficiency, reducing your annual energy bills.
But what is R-value, and how do you influence it? More importantly, what is a good R-value for a garage door?
Read along to learn all you need to know about R-value with regard to garage doors and your home.
Also Read:
What is R-value?
R‑value refers to the measure of a material’s thermal resistance. It is the standard measurement for how well a medium, such as a wall or a garage door, resists heat transfer from one point to another.
R-value is typically used to measure the energy efficiency or insulation levels of various parts of a building.
The number shows the thermal conductivity of a particular material or how much heat or cold can pass through it. The higher the number, the better insulated or more insulating it is. In other words, R-value refers to the insulation level rated on a scale.
If your garage door or home has a higher R-value, it will manage extreme outdoor temperatures better. Therefore, chilly or scorching weather outside will have less impact on your home or the garage than a home or garage door with a lower R-value.
How does heat transfer happen?
Since insulation is about stopping or controlling thermal transfer, you need to understand how the transfer happens to determine how best to control it.
Insulating your home entails putting measures in place to reduce the transfer of heat from the inside and outside of your home. So, how does heat transfer happen?
Heat can move through conduction, radiation, and convection.
-
Conduction
Conduction is the most common of the three means through which heat moves. It is the transfer of heat through physical contact and frequently occurs in nature.
When you touch a hot object, and your hand gets warm, that is conduction or the transfer of heat through a material.
In nature, conduction happens all the time. Your home’s exterior walls get heated by the external environment and physically transfer that heat through the walls into the interior space.
The same happens with the garage door; it gets heated by the hot weather outside, gets warm, and transfers that heat inward through conduction. This is why you install insulation on the door and walls—to stop the heat from getting conducted into the garage.
Since R-value addresses the transfer of heat through a material, it deals with conduction or the thermal transfer through a material.
-
Radiation
Radiation refers to heat transfer to a cooler material from a hotter one. For instance, hot roofing transfers heat to the attic through radiation. Or, a hot, uninsulated garage door transfers the heat to the inside space of the garage through radiation.
Notice that the material picks the heat from the exterior environment, heats up on the outside-facing side and transfers that heat to the inside-facing side (of the door) through conduction, and then radiates that heat to the inside space of the garage (transfers the heat to the garage interior through radiation).
-
Convection
This refers to heat transfer that occurs when hot moisture moves, carrying the heat along with it. This heat transfer occurs due to gaps or porousness in homes. Holes or openings on the outside shell of your home create room for convection issues.
You can solve your home’s convection issues when you air-seal it. This will stop the walls from sucking moisture and moving heat around.
Air sealing your home can prevent mold and mildew growth by preventing condensation experienced when sucked moisture settles.
What does R-value mean for my garage door?
R-value indicates how well your garage door manages thermal transfer. A higher R-value means your garage door does a better job of preventing the extreme temperatures outside from entering your garage.
When the garage door has a low R-value, it conducts heat quickly. Therefore, heat and cold pass through it efficiently. However, when the door’s R-value is high, it does not conduct heat well, which makes it a good insulator.
With regards to energy efficiency, you want a garage door with a higher R-value that will not conduct heat well. That way, it can do a good job of isolating the inside of the garage from the unfavorable heat or cold outdoors.
So, higher R-values are generally better than lower ones. They mean better insulation, which in turn translates to minimal energy losses and lower bills.
Why is insulation important for garage doors?
Most garage doors are made of metal, which is an excellent conductor of heat. Here is an illustration of just how well metals conduct heat: what happens when you touch the edge of a pan while cooking?
It will burn you. This is because the metal conducts heat well, transferring it to the areas, not in contact with the heating flame. In other words, the metal has an incredibly low R-value.
However, it will not burn you when you grip the handle. This is because the handle is made of a poor thermal conductor, so it does not transfer the heat from the hot pan to the side you are gripping. In effect, it drastically increases the R-value of the object.
That is precisely what insulation does to a garage door. It adds a layer of material that is poor at conducting heat, reducing the thermal transfer across the door.
If you leave the door without insulation, it will keep transferring heat or cold between the inside and outside of your garage, leading to massive energy losses and skyrocketing energy bills.
Additionally, the garage door is literally the biggest opening into your home, making it a crucial gap where energy can be lost.
All said, here are the explicit reasons you need insulated garage doors.
-
Insulation improves your home’s energy efficiency.
The main reason for insulation in any part of your home is for improved energy efficiency to minimize your energy bills.
Insulation dampens a material’s thermal conductivity, in this case, the garage door. With insulation, the door’s thermal conductivity reduces significantly as the insulating layer acts as a barrier to thermal flow.
This heat barrier cushions your home from the outside, protecting it from extreme outdoor temperatures. This helps keep your home cool in the summer and warm in the chilly winter months.
Notice that cooling and heating account for a large percentage of household energy use in most places. So, your home’s cooling and heating is the leading energy user, making it the main area to mitigate.
An insulated garage door can help in this regard, contributing to lower energy costs.
-
Insulation makes the indoor space more comfortable
Insulated doors and walls keep your home more comfortable by controlling the amount of heat lost to the outside environment in winter and the heat entering your home in summer.
Insulated garage doors help cushion your indoor space from harsh outside weather, keeping it toasty in the chilly winter and cool during summer.
Insulated garage doors can help ensure your home is comfortable all year. It creates a more stable indoor environment with constant temperatures throughout.
If you have an attached garage, the importance of insulated garage doors couldn’t be overemphasized. Any energy losses through the garage affect your entire home.
And even if the garage is detached, you may still want to use the space as a getaway location where you retreat to have a quiet time or perform an activity that requires silence. For this reason, you will want it comfortable, too, making an insulated garage door essential.
- Insulated garage doors reduce noise disturbance.
If you and your family use the garage for activities other than keeping your vehicle, soundproofing can be essential.
For instance, if you do music practice in the garage, the noise from the musical equipment may affect the neighbors and the rest of your family unless the garage is soundproof.
The same thing applies to garages that double up as DIY workshops where you operate power tools. You need a way to contain the noise.
Alternatively, you may need soundproofing to prevent noise from across the street from distracting you when you need quiet time in the garage.
Insulation materials generally increase the thickness of the garage door, allowing it to absorb sounds and prevent their transfer.
With an insulated garage door, your neighbors won’t complain about noise disturbance, and you will not have to worry about bothering the rest of your family.
What is a good R-value for a garage door?
There is a shorter and longer answer to the question of R-values. This depends on factors like whether the garage is attached or detached. Aim for an R-value of at least R-12 if you have an attached garage that forms part of your house. The idea is to ensure the door has good heat and cold temperature transfer resistance. Find a door with at least an R-10 rating if your garage is detached and insulated. This rating is especially crucial for a heated garage. If the detached garage is uninsulated, an R-6 rating should be adequate. Such a garage can also use an uninsulated door.
Detached garages require lower R-values overall, with ratings between 0 and R-6 recommended for uninsulated, detached garages.
On the other hand, attached but uninsulated garages require relatively lower R-values on the doors than their insulated cousins.
Attached garages with climate control require the highest R-values for their doors to prevent energy loss. These garages should have doors with R-12, R-13, or higher ratings.
Note:
R-values do not work in isolation, and the ratings are not directly proportional to the insulation levels they represent.
Insulation values diminish as R-values increase past certain limits, as they follow the law of diminishing returns. So, a garage door with an R-20 rating is not necessarily twice as effective as one with an R-10 rating.
This explains why knowing the best R-value for your garage door is essential. The knowledge helps you avoid wasting money by paying extra for a pricier door with a higher rating that does not provide any added efficiency.
The video below explains the meaning of R-value and how the R-value ratings are essential for different types of insulations.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What is the best R-value for a garage?
The best R-value for an attached, insulated, and heated garage is R-12 or higher. For maximum efficiency, go for R-14 to R-16 ratings. For a detached, uninsulated garage with no air conditioning, R-values between 0 and R-6 should be adequate.
Q2. What is the best R-value for garage door insulation?
An R‑6 value is considered adequate for a detached garage door. But if the garage is attached, insulation with an R-12 or higher value is recommended. These recommended ratings assume that the detached garage has no climate control and that the attached one is insulated and heated.
Q3. Is a high R-value garage door worth it?
Yes, higher R-values typically represent better insulation and slower thermal transfer. When heat loss is slow, it means your home has better protection from the chilly or scorching outdoor weather. It can also mean reduced energy loss and lower bills.
However, the highest rating may not necessarily mean the highest efficiency, so it is better to consider the recommended R-values and choose them for your home.
Summary: What is a good R-value for a garage door?
Investing in an insulated door for your garage can significantly cut your energy bills while making your garage and home more comfortable. However, since different garages require different R-values, consider R-13 or higher for attached, insulated garages with air conditioning.
Such garages are part of your home and may significantly drive up your energy bills if left unchecked.
If your garage is detached and non-insulated, go for R-values between 0 and R-6. Further, the R-6 to R-9 rating should do for attached garages with no air conditioning or insulation. The chances are that you generally spend little time in these garages, so they can do with minimal insulation.
We hope this helps you out. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
