Revolving Door Generates Energy, Maybe.
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 02. 7.08
Inhabitat shows the Revolution Door from Fluxlab and describes it as "an ingenious sustainable energy harvesting idea that makes you wonder why no one else has thought of it before." Perhaps because a) lots of people have, it was up on halfbakery three years ago, b) more importantly, revolving doors are already hard for some people to use because of the resistance caused by the seals against the side and the weight of the door. Adding a generator adds drag and any more resistance is, well, futile.
Even the creators of the door, in their presentation, think of it as more of a demonstration piece than a real generator saying "By mechanically harvesting a negligible amount of human energy and converting it to a tangible display through the use of a generator, the Revolution Door will directly communicate a single person's contribution to an energy cycle possible through the metabolic relationship between people, technology, and architecture."
It is, however, a lovely idea and a lovelier presentation. ::The Revolution Door via Inhabitat
maybe such a thing could generate just enough energy to assist the next user of the door.
a small amount of energy could be generated and stored and there could be a button - like the ones with the handicap symbol to open doors - that could be pressed and the stored energy would then turn or assist with the turning of the door?
Maybe it could offset the HVAC load to compensate for the energy revolving out the door.
This product demonstration was featured on "Invention Nation", a program shown on The Discovery Channel (or maybe National Geographic Channel) every so often.
Okay, so it might not work very well for revolving doors... but what about those revolving entrance counters, like we all have to walk through to get onto the subway, or into Menard's? Seems like a mini-generator attached to those would work almost as well as in a revolving door, and with much less resistance.
Saw this on Invention Nation. The prototype generated power with very little additional drag, and the creators were NY city based where there are plenty of revolving doors. I've never had a operating a revolving door. In fact, they are equipped with a drag mechanism that keeps them from rotating too fast.
Maybe not a viable energy alternative, but certainly an innovative effort in harnessing human power.
Saw the funniest thing the other day - the wind was blowing so hard that a revolving door was moving quite fast on its own. Some guy who wanted to get in the building took a running start to jump in, I rode past so I didn't see if he got stuck in the momentum. In a country famous for its windmills, it's not so smart to use revolving doors. I'm sure that would generate the electricity though.
Little cutesy-cute projects such as this always fail to disclose the horrible return-on-investment after factoring in the cost of materials and energy involved in production and installation.
That alone wouldn't be so bad, but they further deceive a naive public into thinking that any thing similar is a viable solution.
I like the idea of phyisical and tangible resistance produced by reclaiming our energy use or over use. Anything that helps us feel can't be bad. I would gladly help the frail old lady through the door.