Are Revolving Doors More Energy Efficient?
from The Green Lantern: Illuminating answers to environmental questions. July, 2008 My office building just had its entryway refurbished. Now, we have a huge revolving door flanked by two regular, swinging doors. I heard somewhere that revolving doors are supposed to make heating and air conditioning more efficient. Is that true, or can I use the regular doors guilt-free? Right now, it’s 71 degrees Fahrenheit in the Lantern’s Manhattan office and 87 degrees outside. It takes a lot of electricity to cool this entire office building by 16 degrees—but it would take even more if people didn’t use the two large revolving doors between the building lobby and the hot sidewalk outside. Generally speaking, air flows in and out of a building because of differences in air pressure. (In the winter, heated air rises toward the top of a building, and—as long as there are any openings on the ground floor—cold air rushes in to replace it. The opposite happens in the summer, with the cold air flowing o
