When it comes to making the entry of your home special and personalised, the front door is a central element and can add massive kerb appeal for that all important first impression.
Choosing the right front door can also make a huge impact on energy bills, reducing heat leakage and improving thermal efficiencies.
Composite doors are the most energy efficient door choice for a home, proving to be 19% more thermally efficient than a traditional 48mm solid timber door.
Poorly insulated timber front doors can leak 15% of heat, and six times as much heat is lost as a result of the highly inefficient insulation compared to the composite door equivalent.
To help educate on this and make the right choice for your update, we’ve created a heatmap that reveals the true effect of timber door heat leakage, in comparison to composite doors.
The improvement in thermal efficiency is due to the better-insulated foam cores and improved thermal inserts in the outer frames. Triple-glazing can also be added which is much more thermally efficient than single or double glazing.
Designed to withstand varying weather conditions, composite doors are highly resistant to temperature and weather changes, and also require little maintenance for the 30 years they’re expected to last.
In contrast, standard timber doors can warp from too much moisture which can make it difficult to open or close, require more maintenance to look clean and keep the colour, and are more likely to crack due to inconsistent temperature changes which are shown in the heatmap.
Composite doors are different to UPVC doors by the way that they’re manufactured. UPVC doors are made purely with plastic, whereas composite doors are made from a combination of different materials including glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) which is one of the most long-lasting and durable material combinations.
Blocking drafts and trapping heat inside the home will help with managing the heating of a property, especially during colder months. Making simple updates like changing a front door, windows and insulation can save £1,000 on bills by upgrading the property’s EPC rating from an F to a C.
There are a range of updates that can be made on a property to make it more thermally efficient, but choosing a composite door not only adds kerb appeal, better security and durability, but they are also proven to reduce heat leakage, making it an obvious choice in the management of energy consumption.