Insulating front door and sidelights -- thoughts needed

[lml999]

Our new (to us) house has a front door with two half height sidelights. The door and the lower part of each side panel is metal, beveled so that it has some design element... The sidelights are double pane glass, but appear thinner than the glass in other windows. I'd guess that this was installed 22 years ago, when the house was built.

We've been doing some insulation work in other parts of the house. I found that the front door, and the side panels, throw off a lot of cold air. My handheld IR thermostat might show the adjacent inside wall temperature to be at 68 or 70 degrees while the door or side panel metal will show 55 degrees.

Short of ripping it out and installing a new, higher R value unit, what are my options?

I also don't want to lose the architectural design of the beveled panels.

This is the front door to the house and used regularly, so just boarding it up isn't an option.

I would guess that the units already have insulation in the interior cavities.

If I were living alone, I'd get a pair of heavy curtains and pull them open during the day, close them at night. But...I share the house with SWMBO, and I'm not sure this would have high WAF.

Thoughts, comments appreciated...

 

[vinny11950]

Not a lot of options here. I like your curtain idea best, especially if you have a little front door hall way or vestibule. Maybe you could tackle the problem from outside?

 

[lml999]

Not a lot of options here. I like your curtain idea best, especially if you have a little front door hall way or vestibule. Maybe you could tackle the problem from outside?

I did install a good quality storm door. I don't know how people live without them!

Not sure what else I can do outside that wouldn't affect the aesthetics...