Tinted Glass Doors Pros & Cons

[PA Slammer]

As the title says, what are the Pros and Cons for an all glass tinted garage door?

I am building a "SOUTH" facing 4 bay shop with three 10'X10' doors in Loveland CO. The shop will be heated to maintain a minimum of 50 degrees. No A/C for the summer. I will store a boat, RV, trailer and a few motorcycles in it as well as having a small shop to work in from time to time. It'll have a small bathroom and a small mechanical room. Primary heat will be a gas Reznor heater. There will also be 52 solar panels on the roof.

 

[PA Slammer]

Here are some renditions.

 

[RVDan]

The cons are always going to be about temperature control.

 

[ct03911]

Friend of mine has glass garage doors. Neat to be able to look outside and a mirror look from the driveway.
I don’t think they are a double pane or insulated glass however.
If you can get them with some reasonable r-factor they are nice looking.
Especially if the view out the garage is a good one.

 

[PA Slammer]

If any of you guys could get some real life info from them, that would be awesome!

I understand that insula5will be the primary concern... but how big of a concern? Will the sun warm the place up during the day and offset the heat loss at night? That's kind've what I'm wondering.

Thanks!

 

[driftpin]

My comment is on not OH garage doors, but a passageway door. We did a re-model of the entire home, including a garage reconfiguration. At first we had a solid passageway door, but changed it out for a single-light, full length, frosted low-e door. Before it was pitch-black in the CBS garage, as there are no windows. Now it's light-enough during the day to easily-see your way around. Frost finish provides privacy. Low-e helps temp control, this is south FL. I recently hooked-up two heat/motion detector lights, but they don't activate the lights until you're well-into the room.

For the OH door windows, I like the feature, I think they look better from the outside than solid doors. As to allowing solar heat gain, I guess that's a + if you want to, and the insulated coated glass will control it somewhat if you don't want it.

 

[glazier1]

The issue with the use of highly reflective glass might be the lack of privacy at night. Typically the exterior surface is reflective during sunlight hours, but the interior surface becomes reflective at night when the interior lights are on. The light ratio (interior vs exterior) will determine whether you can see In or out. I have discussed this with architects many times and one of the solutions that comes up is the use of frosted or translucent glass.

 

[mike in tucson]

glazier1..... another solution is to put a light outside that hits the window at a low angle from below....kinda like those lights that illuminate a flagpole.

 

[PA Slammer]

Re: Tinted Glass Doors Pros & Cons

There will be lights in the soffet. And... we live in the middle of nowhere with a long driveway at the end of a cul de sac.

Not too worried about privacy.

 

[PA Slammer]

But, great points!

I'm really interested in heating loss and solar gain issues.

What have they thought about those issues?

 

[Hot Rod Grampa]

Most of the glass doors are available with insulated glass, but be aware the aluminum frames are not insulated. Just a hollow extrusion/tube. It is possible there is a company insulating them but I have not heard of one. I have installed several all glass doors in residential applications and the best advice is to design your garage with adequate overhang to shield the doors from as much sun during the summer. These homes are high end on a lake and are seldom used in winter so it was all about looks.

 

[PA Slammer]

Most of the glass doors are available with insulated glass, but be aware the aluminum frames are not insulated. Just a hollow extrusion/tube. It is possible there is a company insulating them but I have not heard of one. I have installed several all glass doors in residential applications and the best advice is to design your garage with adequate overhang to shield the doors from as much sun during the summer. These homes are high end on a lake and are seldom used in winter so it was all about looks.

Thanks! That seems to be what I'm hearing as well. I guess they use aluminum because it doesn't absorb the heat like other metals. But I don't understand why they don't insulate the metal areas.

The overhang is 3'. We might be able the extend a bit. The extra overhang would help shade in the summer when sun is higher and light more light in during the winter when the sun is lower.

 

[jstroede]

Way to pull up a 5+ year old post to spam the site.