The revolving door, now that is one heck of an invention! This door has been an active part of hotel and office life for decades and just now someone has though to turn it into a human hamster wheel. Fluxxlab's Revolution Door takes the energy exerted by humans pushing a revolving door and turns it into energy that could be utilized anywhere. Although, it would be funny to see an energy-generating revolving door powering an automatic revolving door. Sustainability, what?
Fluxxlab has received a lot of backing for the project, so don't be surprised if you will soon be generating electricity for hotels, office buildings and more. The turbine-like system can be installed into any revolving door. Regardless of how green a revolving door is, I will still despise these installations. Does anybody else feel overly uncomfortable and awkward trying to use a revolving door?
Via Inhabitat
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By murray at 2:32 PM ON 02/08/08
Cute idea, but honestly, how much energy are you going to capture? Enough to dimly light a small room? Seems pretty silly.
The best non-powered revolving doors are beautifully engineered so that they require minimal energy to get moving, and then they just want to keep going. Putting a generator on them will just make them harder to use.
By Thomas at 8:42 PM ON 02/08/08
Who cares if it makes them harder to use? It's not about ease of use it's about changing the way we think about creating energy. In reality your right we won't be powering the world with revolving doors but if the buildings that use these could reduce their grid power consumption by even 1/10 of 1 percent it's a step in the right direction, and it will get others thinking of other innovative and non invasive ways to create energy. It's not about style anymore it's about function. Quit being so lazy, it won't break your hand to push a little harder.
By um at 11:02 PM ON 02/08/08
This strikes me as silly. You're not going to recapture much energy from it, and the purpose of a door is to allow access, not generate energy.
It would make much more sense to have, say, an uneven entrance that flexed up and down to generate energy than a door. And what about elderly, etc. Do they have someone push the door for them? separate entrance?
By Richard at 7:41 PM ON 02/10/08
Unfortunately, nothing is free. The door to my dentist's office is motorized for handicap patients. If you don't use the motor, you have to push against it to open the door. It's so heavy I almost hurt myself every time I visit. This revolving door would be the same way ... there is a generator that a person pushing the door is having to turn.
Depending on how this is set up, it could be a really bad idea.
By Okgo1965 at 4:42 PM ON 02/28/08
Long live human hamsters!
It just goes to prove we'll make great pets.