Have you ever seen the signs on the entrance that say, “Please use the revolving door”? Well I sure have! And I have often wondered, why exactly do they want people to use the revolving door. I have two ideas.

1. Revolving doors look cooler
2. Save energy

Now point one is undeniably true. Obviously revolving doors are cooler. I mean, think of all the nice places you have ever seen, they all have revolving doors right? Exactly. So a low-class place puts in a revolving door and all of the sudden, bam! They’re in the big time.

In my more lucid moments, I generally thought the answer was point 2. But is this really true? Does a revolving door really save energy? Well here comes the science.

I searched and came upon this website that explains it all (bonus, it’s from MIT). Basically, a revolving doors ‘exchanges’ less air with the outside than a standard swing door. This means you need to do less cooling or heating as there is less new air. In fact, in one building on their campus, with only 2 revolving doors, MIT can see a 74% savings if the revolving doors are the only ones used. Interesting. And finally a few more facts from the article.

This is a list of some of the things you can do with the energy that is wasted when you open a standard swing door. Think about that energy wasters!

• 1.3 hours of light from a desk lamp
• 4.3 hours of light from a compact fluorescent bulb
• Driving a car 306 feet
• Half a mile jog

Potentially related posts:

• Pictures from my computer build Everything showed up at a reasonable time on Thursday and...
• First birthday build piece arrives! I have decided to treat myself to a nice new...