Does insulating your garage save you money?
Common sense does lead you in the direction of insulating your garage because keeping the cold out (or the warm out) is obviously a good thing. Is it really?
Think about what the builder did when they built your house. If you have ever purchased a brand new house that you barely had enough money to afford, you will notice that the builder only drywalled the garage walls that connect directly to the living quarters. They left the rest of the wall surface exposed. They did this to minimize cost.
Do you think, however, the builder would deliver a house to your that you could not keep cool in the summer and warm in the winter? They did what was necessary to keep the inside and outside air in their respective places.
Think about it this way. If you took the garage off of your house, what more would have to be done to the walls that already had drywall to finish that area. Siding or brick, right?
In actuality, it would take a long period of time to recover the money (some estimates indicate $1000) that it would take to insulate and drywall the outside walls of your garage, in utility savings.
Here are some posts that make the same claim:
- Insulating a Garage:Â Is it worth the money?
- Should I insulate and drywall a garage ceiling that has living space above it?
- Should I insulate and unheated garage?
A better approach to saving money on the energy loss from the garage would be to make sure the walls between the garage and the living space are insulated, then make sure you have a storm door between the two spaces and good weather stripping on the bottom of the door to the house and the bottom of the garage door.