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To get good glass doors or to improve the energy efficiency of existing glass doors, bet on…
- Doors with
Low Emissivity Glass Do not choose a cheap patio door. Over the long run, you will pay a lot for it. A good energy-efficient patio door is a smart investment: the energy savings will pay many times the additional initial cost.
Sliding glass doors are typically non-efficient in terms of energy. Air leakage around the weather-stripping is unavoidable in them. Sliding doors is a poor choice in non-moderate climates. After some years of use, their weather-stripping will wear down and air leakage will increase. To minimize it, if you have an aged sliding patio door, you may try to replace the worn weather-stripping. If the manufacturer has made it possible to do so, it’s a good way to save a lot of energy.
If you intend to buy a new door or replace a new one, the swinging door type is the best option. It offers a much tighter seal than sliding type doors, and that make them largely preferable.
Modern patio/glass doors with aluminum or other metal frames should have a thermal break. The thermal break is a piece of insulating plastic, located between the inner and the outer parts of the frame – apparently just a technical detail, but in fact a crucial one: it will save a large amount of energy, making the patio door much more energy efficient.
Pay attention to the number of layers of glass, and to its properties. Low-emissivity coatings with low conductivity gases between the panes are crucial for the energy-efficiency of the doors, namely if you live in a non-moderate climate.
See, for details:
Low Emissivity Glasses A screen door - here considered as a screened sliding door used on a sliding patio door, incorporating a screen mesh – can be excellent to help keeping insects out, but not only. They are also excellent - in some climates and seasons - to get natural ventilation and, by this way, energy savings.
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