Garage Door Question, Informal Poll

[Dawagonbus]

Thanks guys.

I have to tell you my wife is a saint to put up with me And she is one hell of a mother so no, I won't be saying any such thing!

Anyways, I'll probably go with the insulated door when I get around to replacing it. I'll have plenty of other projects to keep me busy in the mean time...I plan on putting all the projects; wants; and needs on index cards so I can shuffle the priority around as needed.

[caryberry]

If you have SRP Time-of-Day service, most of your laundry will be done at night and on weekends unless you want to pay peak rates.

We have a south facing garage door and W/D in the garage - after six years, the temperature of the garage has never been a deterrent to doing a few loads. But I might start using it as an excuse to forego laundry and stay in the pool!

[PCBONEZ]

In the situation the OP describes I would:
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1: Insulate the attic. (Walls too if you can handle it.) - Where-as the door is only a problem when the sun is actually on it the attic is a problem all day and most of the night. The sun is always on the roof at some angle during the day and it gets REALLY hot up there. Unless you have forced air attic cooling at night it will stay hot at night and that heat comes right through that uninsulated ceiling into your garage all night long. Having a hot garage attached to the house really doesn't help the house stay cool either.
2: Get a small swamp cooler (first choice) or wall AC unit (second choice). [Remember you need a way for air to get out to use a swamp cooler.] Don't need to run it full time. Kick it on an hour or two before you want to be out there. - My last place had an insulated (walls and ceiling) detached 2-car garage. (The door was NOT insulated however.) I picked up one of those 'roll around' swamp coolers (the smaller one) they sell at Home Depot as-used on Craigslist for $70 and installed it in the back wall. I had an electronics workshop in the garage and I spent a large part of most days out there. That small swampy was enough to keep it tolerable most of the time with the fan on the slow speed. The high speed made it feel like a swamp out there. [Again, if you don't let as much air out as 'wants' to blow in from the cooler it will feel like a swamp (no pun intended) in your garage.]
3: Insulate the door. - In the setup I described the door would get hot enough to burn your hand (literally) on those really hot days. Were it not for that smokin' hot door it would have been very comfortable in that garage rather than just tolerable.
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I don't know for sure but I suspect attic insulation would have more of a positive affect than garage door insulation.
.. And wall insulation less.
EACH of them would have a noticeable affect. Any of them will help.
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As a side note: The garage I described earlier had one of those pull-down step ladders to go into the attic. I crammed a piece of 1x4 in there to keep it open a crack (3/4"). That let the pressure from the swamp cooler displace a small amount hot attic air with cooler air from inside the building. It's so dry here the moisture going up there wasn't an issue at all. Insulation up there never felt damp at all. The cooler air tends to hang near the ceiling (where it helps) and the hotter air is forced out the roof vents.
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Both Lowes and Home Depot sell kits to insulate garage doors.
Don't HAVE to buy a whole new door just to get an insulated door.
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