… And by revolution, I mean exactly that — revolving, as in revolving doors, as in I’ll be using them more often.
Major thanks go out once again to Shawn over at Kowai, who pointed out that revolving doors have a purpose beyond hijinx: Apparently, according to the smartypants at MIT, classic swing doors exchange roughly eight times as much air than their revolving counterparts, which are far superior in the energy saving department.
Speaking about their university in particular, the study’s authors say, “Our estimates show that if everyone used the revolving doors at E25 alone, MIT would save almost $7500 in natural gas amounting to nearly 15 tons of CO2 And that’s just from two of the 29 revolving doors on campus!”
So while I’m not about to install a revolving door to my apartment any time soon, from now on, if I’m entering a building that has both a standard door and a revolving one, I’ll be using the latter.
Image courtesy of Thomas Hawk on Flickr
WHOA! I bet we could also use the doors to help power the building when people push them! It might not be a lot of energy, but if the place with the doors is busy it could generate a nice amount to save the buiding money.
fascinating! here’s one I’d never seen the math on. Which leads ME to ask; how about having the smarty-pants at MIT design a revolving door that is user friendly!?? Lots of people hate the things; if you have a kid, a package, a pet, or don’t walk exactly the way everyone else does, they’re awful. Let’s get one that’s pleasant to use!
damn, that’s actually really fascinating. I have always wondered whether they were just remnants of the by-gone days when movie stars and dignitaries would only stay at the finest hotels with mega-revolving doors. Guess now I know that they are green doors, I’ll try to use them even though they are annoying. Also makes a great after dinner conversation tidbit.
I hate revolving doors. They make me feel claustrophic. And I always feel anxious about the person behind me pushing too quickly.