sliding glass doors - how much savings

[libraryfreak]

Our sliding glass doors are probably at least 20 years old. They were here when we bought the house. They seem well made, however, the room that they're in is always significantly colder than the rest of the house in winter. I think it's because of the large expanse of glass. We close off the room and don't use it in winter.

I've been thinking about replacing them, but does anybody know how much of a difference it will make? We're looking into either Anderson or Pella that qualifies for the 30% tax credit. But I sure don't want to spend $800 only to find out the room isn't that much warmer.

I understand I won't recoop the $800 in heat bill savings, I'm just looking to be able to use the room year round comfortably.

Thanks to anyone who can give advice/opinions.

 

[clh2]

We have an 18 year old Anderson French doors. We have absolutely no issues with "cold" by this door. IMHO, they are totally worth the additional cost. I would also be concerned about the insulation the outside of the door.

Sorry - I am not in contruction or anything...but if you replace a door or window, it seems like there is always a "gap" on the outside of the frame. This needs to be properly insulated too, or you will always have a heat loss, no matter HOW much you spend on your doors.

My parents put in a Pella patio door (I do not recall if it was sliding or a Frend door) and they have the blinds that go in-between the glass panes. My parents LOVE these. Actually their whole house has Pella windows, with the mini-blinds. They are WONDERFUL! My parents home was new construction about 9 years ago.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I can't give you an exact number, but when we replaced our old slider with a new one, it made the room warmer, definitely. It also looks a lot nicer.

 

[BrettAZ]

Make sure to insulate aroud the opening well enoguh when u take the old one out...that will waste more than a cheap door...but google for door mfgers for doors as good as Ander...and pella, 60% the price!!!

 

[riley2008]

We just finished replacing single pane windows in most of our house. (We didn't do the windows on the first floor in the rear of the house, covered by the patio - we'll do those next spring - gotta save more money).

The first thing we noticed on the first window install was when we raised the window into place. The sun was directly at the window, we were sweating profusely and the temp was about 90 degrees out. Immediately, we felt a difference in the garage! It was such a neat experience.

We have since used a thermal laser temperature guage and the temperatures from the blind over the window and the wall are only different by 0.5 degrees, rather than the 6 degrees before the replacement (in mild mid-80 degree temps).

We obviously have the opposite problem, but our cold windy weather this winter initially prompted us to replace the 11 year old single pane windows. Best investment ever. This month has also been hotter and AC bill projected to be less (and 2 days of taking windows in and out on top of that!).

We used Don Young windows - they are made here in Texas. I'm not sure if they do doors. I didn't think I would like the vinyl, but not hearing the train anymore along with lower eletric bills, I'm now their strongest supporter.

Our doors are decorative steel doors with double pane insulated glass panels. They had been replaced just before we bought the house. I'm not sure what a PP mentioned about a gap. We did have to have ours adjusted, but it was a bad install. They look great and work well, too!

Go for it!