Do you have a car? What is the horsepower? What made you settle for that car? Was it the horsepower? How did you decide on that horsepower? When it comes to horsepower, ideally most car owners don’t know what it means. For instance, whenever you hear the word horsepower, you always tend to associate it with cars, unless you are a mechanical engineer. Actually the truth is, it can be applied almost in all electric or mechanical motors, for example a garage door. And to be straight forward enough, lets talk about garage door openers.

Horsepower motors

This is the work done over time. One unit of horsepower is equivalent to 33,000 lb.ft./min. In other words, if you carry that 33,000 pounds over one foot in one minute, that’s one horsepower.

Origin
In the 18th century, James Watt (1736-1819), an engineer invented the word as a strategy to market his steam engines. As he was working with his horses to lift coal at his coal mine. He discovered that a horse could carry 22,000 pounds of coal through one foot in one minute, he later increased that performance to 33,000foot-pounds in one minute. Therefore as you can see, that measure has stuck ever since. Today, 1 horsepower is equivalent to 746 watts.

Use of horsepower
You can use it to rate the efficiency of both electric and mechanical motors. That’s its main use. However most motor companies such as Genie Systems, use it to price their motor products, energy is money. At this point you can chose a motor product, like garage doors effectively. But, just what do you need to consider when buying your garage door system? The first on that list is power, and you already know pretty much about power and its conversions so you don’t have to get confused or buy something that will consume much than you can afford in terms of power.

Power ratings of a garage door opener
If you were to visit Genie Systems, you will get to learn about the three types of garage door openers, the 1/3, 1/2, and 3/4 horsepower door systems.

Factors to consider for your garage door
First of all, how many doors do you need the system for? The material, and the size of your door as well. If you got two doors, you definitely need at least 1/2 horsepower. Plus a door opener with much horsepower will work better and for a long time. Other factors you need to watch out for is, the type of door drives that suits you (screw, belt, or chain drives). Nevertheless, you also have to look at the efficiency of your garage door. Do you want it to open faster, slower or otherwise? A proper horsepower will suit your speed needs too. Last but not least, consider the prices for the different option available and the warranties just in case there is faulty with the horsepower motor, and you should consider dealing with experts such as Genie Systems.

Contact

Contact us today to discuss a new garage door opener with the proper amount of horsepower!  Call Metro Garage Door today!