There are different types of doors that we can use at home and office. Low energy doors have semi-automatic principle and their use can cause overall injuries. People push a button or wall plate to use this kind of door. Once the door has been proper activated, there’s an internal timer that keeps low energy door to open for specific interval. When a time out has been achieved, the door will close. Unfortunately, low energy doors are sensory blind. It means these doors don’t use egress sensor, presence sensor and approach sensor to determine whether there are people nearby. Sensors should fully function and can be integrated properly with these types of doors. Low energy doors don’t have external sensors and this can represent potential risks.
Low energy doors are designed as assistive component, so handicap accessibility can be achieved for people who don’t have full capability with their body. Once activated, these doors will self open and there are warning stickers on both sides of these doors. It means that low-energy doors could activate without warning at any time. Low-energy doors make it easy for people in wheel chairs to access different parts of the building easily. Regular buildings often have standard pull or push entry doorway. These doors have been used in many offices and buildings, but not all of them are equipped with presence or proximity detection system. When properly used, low energy doors should be quite safe to use. However, there are potential problems can happen, such as power surge and improper maintenance.
Malfunction and unintended usage may cause potential injuries for tenants/employees and legal consequences can be filed against business owners or building administrators. In reality, low energy doors are designed for low-traffic areas inside the building. It means that people don’t use these doors every a few minutes to come in and out of the rooms. High traffic environment could increase the possibility of injuries and it is incorrect to decide using low-energy doors in crowded areas. In this case, we will need to simulate things that can potentially cause injuries due to use of these types of doors. Misuse and misplacement of low energy doors can increase the risk of injuries and legal consequences. In this case, we should consider completely removing low energy doors from high traffic areas.
Potentially dangerous conditions may happen when low energy doors are not used properly. We will need to exercise vigilance when using low-energy doors. CCTV may need to be installed on hallway to find out whether low energy doors are used in a proper manner. If we choose low energy doors for our building, it is important to choose the proper model with low force at only about 10 lbf and relatively slow speed to allow people to react quickly, even for disabled individuals. If the door is forceful and moves at higher speed, it may slam on hands or feet, causing potential injuries. This will cause legal consequences and problems may happen in the long term period.