Measurements of Air Leakage through Revolving Doors of Institutional Building

Exterior doors and entrances of nonresidential buildings are major sources of energy losses caused by air infiltration or exfiltration due to the frequent use of doors and the pressure difference across each door, created by the wind, stack effect, or ventilation systems. Information regarding the air leakage characteristics of manually or power-operated revolving doors is available in the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc. (ASHRAE) publications, based on studies carried out in the 1950s and 1960s. This paper presents results from a recent study carried out to investigate the air leakage characteristics of four revolving doors of a large institutional building in Montreal. These results are compared with data available in ASHRAE publications, as well as with the specifications of the Model National Energy Code of Canada for Buildings and ASHRAE Standard 90.1. The impact of the quality of seals on the annual heating costs is also evaluated.