When one of my children was playing with our garage doors a few years ago, we heard a piercing scream that we will never forget. She had gotten her fingers pinched in the side of the door, and we knew that we had to help her--and fast. Because of our quick actions and first aid, we were able to take care of the problem. After we returned home, I started thinking about ways to keep our kids safe around garage doors. This blog contains loads of helpful information about maintaining your garage doors, looking after your curious children, and preventing serious injury.
If you like saving energy and living a green lifestyle, consider taking some time this summer to make these three easy green improvements to your garage.
Change The LIght Bulbs In Your Garage
It can be easy to forget that your garage also has lights in it. Change out the old incandescent lights that are in your garage with either LED lights or with CFL lights. Both types of lights are much more energy efficient than the old incandescent lights that are currently in your garage.
If you have a work space in your garage, you can purchase motion detection track LED lights that run on batteries to conserve energy. Or, you could install some track lights that are wired into the rest of your electrical system that run on LED lights. That way, when you need to work on a project, you can be more efficient with your electrical and light usage.
Upgrade Your Garage Door
If your garage door is older, it may not have the same insulation value as a newer garage door. Garage doors are given R-values by Energy Star, a government energy saving program. The R-value of your garage tells you how effective it is at keeping outside air from getting into your garage. Go to your local home improvement store and purchase the highest R-value garage door that you can find.
If you don't want to completely replace your garage door, you can take other steps to upgrade it. You can purchase insulation from your local home improvement store and attach it to the inside of your garage door. This will have a similar effect to purchasing a garage door that is better insulated.
You can also install weather-stripping around your garage door in order to prevent outside air from getting through all those little cracks and into your garage. If you have a side garage door, you should install weather stripping around it as well.
By increasing the insulation around your garage doors, you will be able to keep your garage at a more consistent temperature year round. If your garage is attached to your home, increasing the insulation in your garage will benefit your home as well.
For more information about upgrading garage doors, contact a company like Jayton Door Corporation.
Install Solar Panels
If you really want to make your garage more green and efficient, you could also have a contractor install solar panels on top of your garage. You could then have the contractor set the solar panels up so that the energy generated from them is used to keep your garage warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
If you want to make your lifestyle and your garage more green this summer, try out one of the tips listed above. Each step you take to make your garage more green will end up benefiting your wallet and the environment in the long run.
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26 July 2015
