B&D Garage Doors and Openers announces a new range of garage doors designed to bring home-like comfort to the garage by insulating the space from heat, noise and debris.

B&D's new Enviropanel door achieves the level of insulation standards more commonly found within a home, making the garage space quieter and more comfortable to occupy.

B&D marketing director Stuart Sutherland explains the Enviropanel uses a unique thermal break between the polystyrene-cored door panels, eliminating any metal-to-metal contact between the inside and outside of the door, thereby reducing radiant heat from entering and escaping from the garage space. The door panels achieve an R-value rating of R1.83 compared with a rating of R0.1-0.2 for a non-insulated door.

By making the garage more temperature-controlled, cleaner and quieter, it becomes more suitable as an extension of the home. Enviropanel garage doors are available in flat or ribbed profile finishes and in a large range of colours.

B&D technical expert Ryan Ayres advises home owners to be better aware about their garages as builders often skimp on garage insulation, compromising the overall thermal performance of the rest of the home.

According to Mr Ayres, when an un-insulated garage space shares roofing and walling with the rest of the house, radiant heat from the sun is absorbed by the garage and re-radiated through those surfaces to the cooler air-conditioned house. The reverse occurs in winter as heat from the home radiates into and leaks through the garage.

B&D's own internal testing of Enviropanel, which data-logged inside and outside temperatures every 10 minutes over a two-week period, revealed it was 14.8 per cent more thermally efficient than an equivalent non-insulated garage door.

In addition to its insulation properties, Enviropanel offers several advantages over conventional garage doors including a perimeter seal system that effectively reduces the amount of dust entering the garage, while also lowering external noise transmission.

B&D’s Enviropanel door has been independently tested for noise reduction in accordance with the Australian Standard. The field noise assessment revealed it can cut noise levels by 19dB(A) or has a noise reduction index of 24Rw. For instance, typical loud traffic noise of around 80dB that can enter a garage from outside can be reduced to around 56dB, which is comparable to that of a normal conversation, simply by closing the Enviropanel.