Why You Want Your Iron Door To Be NFRC Certified

If you are shopping for doors, you may come across labels that say they are National Fenestration Rating Council certified. This can be very helpful when picking an iron door, in particular, since deciding which fits your home can be so tricky when talking about something as arcane as thermal energy. These labels indicate that an independent third party tested and rated the door for its energy efficiency. These labels tell you about the door’s performance, which will help you pick an iron door that does the following things:

Why You Want Your Iron Door To Be NFRC Certified

 

Keep Your Interior Comfortable

Your house is your own personal climate, kept at the temperature that you are happiest with. Reading the NRFC label lets you find the iron door that will keep your home cool during a heat wave and warm during a storm, instead having it fluctuate with the weather. The label will tell you if the door allows a lot of heat from the sun into your house through the Solar Heat Gain Coefficient number. If you want to keep a heat wave from roasting your indoors, pick one with a low SHGC number.

Save Energy

About 45% of all our energy bills are devoted to cooling or heating our houses, and it isn’t too hard to see why. Heat naturally goes where it is cold. Whenever you turn on your heater, some of the heat tries to escape to the cooler outdoors, and the more you trap the heat indoors, the less energy that you have to expend making up for the AWOL heat.

When you look at NRFC certified doors, there will be labels describing how well the door traps heat. This is called the U-factor, and a lower U-factor indicates a better heat-trapping ability. To pick the door that will save you the most energy, look for the label with the lowest U-factor.

So What Makes An Iron Door Energy Efficient?

All right, so comparing NRFC certification ratings is a good thing. But how do iron doors qualify? What do the independent testers want to see that will contribute to their ratings? They should be made from materials that the Energy Star program acknowledges to be the most energy efficient available now- steel with polyurethane foam core. The glass used in the doors is an important component, too. The glass should be a variety that meets Federal and State performance codes and reflects sunlight. This will keep you from having to run the air conditioner too much in our famously hot Texan climate. 

Thermal breaks, materials that is put between 2 materials to slow heat from one material to another, can be incorporated in the doors structure. Glazing tape and caulk should be chosen for its ability to act in this matter.

For more information on NRFC certified iron doors, contact us. We have 15 years of experience meeting their standards.