Revolving Doors — Not Just for Tormenting Your Claustrophobic Friends Anymore

A revolving door that generates energy? Sounds feasible, right? Well apparently, it is. Boon Edam, the Dutch company that created it, discusses:

The Boon Edam revolving door plays a very important part in achieving and maintaining the sustainability of the building. The TQM revolving door will help primarily to save the carefully generated and conserved energy. A calculation was made for this particular situation that indicated an energy saving of around 4600 kWh per year, a considerable saving compared to a conventional sliding entrance.

For this very special project, Boon Edam has gone one step further to become the first manufacturer in the world to develop an energy generating manual revolving door, which will not only save energy but also generate energy with every person passing through the door. The revolving door is equipped with a special generator that is driven by the human energy applied to the door whilst the generator controls the rotating speed of the door and makes it safer. The ceiling of the revolving door is made of safety class and gives a clear view of the technology. A set of super capacitors stores the generated energy as a buffer and provides a consistent supply for the low energy LED lights in the ceiling. In case the LED lights have used-up all the stored energy, the highly efficient control unit will switch to the alternative mains supply of the building. This ensures that the door is illuminated at all times, even when the passenger flow is minimal. 

Very encouraging. But sadly, this photo is already giving me RCA/Hoosier Dome withdrawals. The building has been demolished for weeks and I still long for those days walking out of the stadium, getting vacuum-sucked by the air pressure onto the concourse like a wayward hamster who’s been found by the family’s Hoover. Oh, the memories.

Hat tip to 13th Floor.