Tips for Choosing Energy-Efficient Sliding Glass Doors

Glass doors are meant to be permeable in some respects, since you want sunlight to come into your home and energize your interior during the day. On the other hand, you don’t want heat and air to flow freely past them, since this could cause your home to lose the precious coolness or heat from your HVAC unit. This will make it harder for your HVAC system to maintain the temperature you set on the thermostat, costing you more money on utilities. Use our tips for choosing energy-efficient sliding glass doors so that your house stays sealed.

Assess the Door Frame

The frame that your sliding glass doors fit into is just as important as the doors themselves in ensuring you have a tight barrier against the outdoors. A well-insulated frame will have a layer of metal facing the inside and another on the outside. In between these, a layer of plastic should provide extra insulation to the structure. The frame should also allow you to add weather stripping in the small gap between the two sliding doors and on the sides. Some frames also have foam inside their design for greater insulation.

Consider the Quality of Glass

After assessing the frame, you should consider the quality of the glass that makes up the sliding doors. A tip for choosing energy-efficient sliding glass doors is to find out about the extra features they have. Glass doors created expressly for energy-efficient purposes will have double panes, which hot and cold air can’t penetrate. Krypton or argon gas between the two panes acts as a transparent insulator. A coating called Low-E is also applied to the glass surface of energy-efficient sliding doors. Made of tiny metal particles, this coating can exist on the outer sides of the glass (hard coat) or on the inner sides (soft coat). Both coat types further insulate the doors.

When you’re planning a home renovation or building project, contact Florida Window and Door Solutions for installation of energy-efficient, sturdy sliding doors in Florida. We’ll even take care of the permit requirements involved with the work.