Do Storm Doors Qualify for the Energy Tax Credit?

Storm doors do not qualify for the federal energy tax credit. Energy Star does not certify storm doors as a product category, and the Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit under Section 25C required exterior doors to meet applicable Energy Star standards to be eligible.¹ Standard exterior entry doors that carry Energy Star certification could qualify, but only for installations completed on or before December 31, 2025. The One Big Beautiful Bill terminated the entire Section 25C credit for property placed in service after that date.²

Why Storm Doors Are Excluded

The Section 25C credit covered “exterior doors that meet applicable Energy Star requirements.”¹ A storm door is a secondary door installed over an existing entry door for added insulation and weather protection. It is a separate product category from an exterior entry door, and Energy Star does not certify it. With no Energy Star standard to meet, a storm door cannot satisfy the certification requirement the credit was built around.

This has not always been the case. The original Nonbusiness Energy Property Credit, the predecessor to Section 25C, once allowed storm doors to qualify if they independently met specific U-factor and solar heat gain thresholds. When the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 overhauled the credit and tied eligibility to Energy Star certification, storm doors lost their place.³ A storm door purchased and installed under the current rules does not qualify regardless of its energy performance, its price, or any efficiency claim the manufacturer makes.

What Did Qualify: Standard Exterior Entry Doors

If you’re checking whether a door you installed counts, the eligible product is a primary exterior entry door certified by Energy Star for your climate zone. Certification depends on the door meeting performance thresholds set by the National Fenestration Rating Council for U-factor and Solar Heat Gain Coefficient, and those thresholds vary by glazing level and climate zone.⁴

Energy Star recommended verifying eligibility in three steps: find your climate zone using the Energy Star Climate Zone Finder, locate the NFRC Certified Product Directory (CPD) number on the product label, and look up that CPD number in the NFRC directory. If your climate zone showed a check mark in the results, the door was certified for your location. An Energy Star logo alone was not enough — a door certified for a different zone did not qualify for yours.⁴

Two other conditions applied. The door had to be installed on your main home, meaning the residence where you live most of the time. Second homes, vacation properties, and rental units did not qualify.¹ The credit also applied only to improvements on existing homes; doors installed as part of new construction were not eligible.⁵

How Much the Door Credit Was Worth

For a qualifying exterior door, the credit equaled 30 percent of the purchase price, subject to two caps: $250 for any single door and $500 total for all exterior doors in one tax year.⁶ Labor and installation costs did not count toward the credit for building envelope components like doors. Only the cost of the door itself was eligible.¹

The credit was non-refundable. It could reduce your tax bill to zero but would not generate a refund, and any excess was lost — there was no carryforward to future years.⁶⁷ If a utility or manufacturer rebate reduced the price you actually paid, the credit had to be calculated on the reduced amount.⁸

The Credit Ends After 2025

The One Big Beautiful Bill (Public Law 119-21), signed on July 4, 2025, added a termination provision to Section 25C. The credit does not apply to any property placed in service after December 31, 2025.²⁹ A qualifying exterior door installed in 2026 or later does not qualify for the federal energy tax credit. Neither does a storm door — that answer has not changed and will not change under Section 25C.

If you installed an Energy Star-certified exterior entry door in 2025 and have not yet filed, you can still claim the credit for that tax year on your 2025 return.

Claiming the Credit for a 2025 Installation

You claim the credit on IRS Form 5695 (Residential Energy Credits), Part II. Line 19 covers exterior doors. The form asks for the cost of the most expensive door first, then up to two additional doors, then any remaining doors on a separate line, with the total for all doors capped at $500.¹⁰ Form 5695 attaches to your Form 1040 or 1040-SR, and the resulting credit flows to Schedule 3, line 5b.¹¹

For doors placed in service in 2025, Form 5695 also requires the four-character Qualified Manufacturer Identification Number (QMID) unique to each door.¹² The number should appear on the product label or in the manufacturer’s documentation. Omitting it can result in the IRS denying the credit.¹³

Keep the original sales receipt showing the door’s cost separate from any installation labor, along with the Manufacturer’s Certification Statement confirming Energy Star compliance. Manufacturers often post these certification statements on their websites if one wasn’t included with the purchase.¹⁴ You don’t send these documents in with the return, but you do have to keep them.¹² Hold on to the receipts, certification statement, your filed Form 5695, and the return itself for at least three years after filing, which matches the standard IRS assessment period.¹⁵

A few errors specifically trip up door claims. Adding installation charges to the door’s purchase price inflates the credit incorrectly. Forgetting to reduce the cost basis by a utility or manufacturer rebate produces the same problem. Claiming a door installed on a rental, second home, or new build fails the residence test. And leaving off the QMID for a 2025 installation can cost you the credit even when the door itself qualifies.¹²

1
Internal Revenue Service. Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit
2
Internal Revenue Service. FAQs for Modification of Sections 25C, 25D, 25E, 30C, 30D, 45L, 45W, and 179D Under the One Big Beautiful Bill
3
ENERGY STAR. Tax Credit Information
4
ENERGY STAR. Exterior Doors Tax Credit
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Internal Revenue Service. Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit – Qualifying Residence
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 25C – Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit
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ENERGY STAR. Federal Tax Credits for Energy Efficiency
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Internal Revenue Service. Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit – General Questions
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 25C – Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit
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Internal Revenue Service. Form 5695 – Residential Energy Credits
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Internal Revenue Service. About Form 5695, Residential Energy Credits
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Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 5695
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Internal Revenue Service. Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit Qualified Manufacturer Requirements
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ENERGY STAR. Tax Credit Definitions
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Internal Revenue Service. How Long Should I Keep Records