Have you ever gone to a restaurant in the wintertime and been seated at a table near the door? If so, you probably know what it’s like to have your dining experience interrupted and hampered by drafts of freezing air every time someone opens the door.
Alternatively, have you ever visited a business that had an “open-door” policy in the summertime? Especially for retail stores, restaurants, coffee shops, and bars, leaving the door open can entice customers to come inside. Unfortunately, an open door also welcomes unwanted elements into the building, including fumes from passing vehicles, dust and pollen floating in the air, or pesky flying insects.
How These Examples Illustrate the Benefits of Air Curtains
These two scenarios both illustrate common and smart uses for air curtains. An air curtain is a device installed at the top of a door frame that propels a steady flow of air over the opening in the door. This air stream is easy for people to pass through, but it serves as a barrier for other things, including air molecules, allergens, and flying insects. In other words, it creates an invisible barrier between the inside world and the outside world.
In both of the situations described above, having an air curtain would have improved matters significantly. In the first scenario, the air curtain would have served as a barrier to block the cold drafts from the outdoors. One of the core uses of air curtains is creature comfort. By limiting heat transfer and preventing cold (or hot) drafts of air, an air curtain can do a lot to maintain the comfortable environment of a restaurant or similar establishment. Even if you were seated at a table near the front door—and even if the door were frequently opening, always a likelihood for a popular, well-trafficked restaurant—you wouldn’t be experiencing those cold drafts. Instead, you’d be able to dine in comfort and enjoy an all-around superior experience.
As for the building with an open-door policy, the flow of air from the air curtain serves as an impediment to flying insects, allergens, fumes, dust, or other particles or impurities. These contaminants are so lightweight and insubstantial that they cannot make it through the stream of air produced by the curtain. The result is that you can leave the door open to your business without welcoming bugs or allergens into the building.
Air Curtains, Heat Transfer, and Energy Savings
Since air curtains serve as an effective deterrent for heat transfer, they also serve an energy-saving application for many businesses. For establishments that leave their doors open or experience a lot of foot traffic, it’s not easy to maintain a stable interior temperature. The laws of heat transfer dictate that heat will always flow from warmer systems or objects to colder ones if there is contact between the two. In other words, when you open the door to an air-conditioned building in the summer, warm air from outside is naturally going to flow into the building. If it’s winter and the building is heated, the heat from inside will move toward the cold outdoors any time the door is opened.
These transfers add up over time and force the building’s heating or cooling system to work harder to maintain the thermostat temperature. In turn, those HVAC systems use more energy and add to the energy expenses for the building and its owner. By effectively separating warmer systems from cooler ones, air curtains prevent this kind of transfer from happening.
As you can see, air curtains provide numerous benefits for business proprietors and building owners. To learn more about these devices and how to install them, contact Air Door Distributors today.
