Most doors that are controlled for handicap accessability are control using a hydraulic cylinder that costs hundreds of dollars, and not a motor. Any motorized doors cost way way more than that.
I had the same thought when I was younger about putting generators attached to a bouy in the ocean, which has waves constantly and would generate power all day. Just like your door idea, it would work and would make power, but it wouldnt turn a profit. Its too expensive for the output you would get in return. So… yeah… we are gonna continue to burn fossil fuels for now cause its the cheapest… once we deplete enough of them that it gets more expensive than something else, we will switch to that until we destroy the world, or skynet takes over and we become the next power source.
jj4211@lemmy.world 1 week ago
So assuming 10 lbs of force, as measured 1 meter away from the hinge, you have about 44.5 Nm of torque. Assuming each door opening was about 90 degrees, then you have about 70 Joules per door operating event.
Each door opening would have a physical theoretical max of 0.02 watt-hours.
Assuming you spent 8 hours opening a door every 10 seconds constantly, then you have 58 watt-hours of energy at the end of the day if you had 100% efficient generators. One typical solar panel would hit that in under 15 minutes in real-world energy collection, not theoretical.
Nindelofocho@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Good soup thank you very much for doing the math. I was struggling