You’d probably generate less electricity then would be required to create the calories needed to cover opening the now slightly more resistant door.
Comment on Earth needs more energy. Atlanta’s Super Soaker creator may have a solution.
Nindelofocho@lemmy.world 1 week ago
So like a little removed from this but I always wondered why cant we harvest energy from busy buildings where people are closing and opening doors all the time? The doors typically already even have a motor on them to be handicap accessible and need to slow close anyways. If anything it could generate enough electricity for at least a couple lights or office computers
HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 week ago
SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 1 week ago
You’d make it harder to open doors and slower to close, wasting heat in winter and ac in summer.
Nindelofocho@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Almost every commercial door has a door closer rhat does exactly this?
SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 1 week ago
The benefit is trivial compared to the cost
frongt@lemmy.zip 1 week ago
The cost of installing the generator and wiring is far higher than the energy recouped.
Nindelofocho@lemmy.world 1 week ago
That doesent make sense though because automatic doors and handicap accessible doors already have motors which also can be generators and are otherwise connected to power??
Like the only complexity I can think of would be smoothly and safely delivering the power back to the buildings grid but we definitely have overcome these complexities in other applications
Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
Think about this… if it were profitable most white collar workers would be riding a stationary bike with a generator, much more energy than a door opening.
A stationary bike over an 8 hour workday would produce probably ~1kWh, so like 19 cents given the US average. That wouldn’t even pay for maintenance and replacement parts for the devices.
Nindelofocho@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Its less about the profit and more about offsetting costs. Yes one door wouldnt be really worthwhile but in this circumstance you’re using parts you already need to maintain and run(door pistons and accessibility) and the complexity added to the system could be bypassed should it fail without impacting that core operation
jj4211@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Well then you need to handle backfeeding all sorts of circuits, which is generally a pain to the extent it works. But it also would barely do anything.
Nindelofocho@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Yes as you typically do with most forms of generation. One door wouldnt do much but multiple doors opening and closing constantly all day surely has the potential to generate some amount of energy.
Ive been in places where the door basically doesent stop moving for hours at a time, even if the door doesent close fully its still moving by someone either opening it wider or it coasting back towards closed position. Compliant exterior doors are typically set to take about 8.5-10lbs of force to open. Im not super good at math but surely that much “weight” moving constantly could generate some electricity. There are small wind turbines that move with less force constantly