Maybe it's made of a less-conductive materal (e.g., plastic with metallic paint).
I have no clue but i am here to support your scientific endeavour in this matter.
Are there access controls on this door such as a badge/RFID reader? I've seen electric strikes on access controlled doors stay pretty warm.
This is what I thought of too. I worked in a building with a warm door handle. Its latch was open during the day, but locked after hours. I assumed the electro-mechanical mechanism generated heat keeping it unlocked.
That would be an easy thing to check. Feel the area around the handle, and the wall near the latch. Is it noticeably warmer than parts of the door/wall further away?
Are you sure it's not the same temperature as the handle on the inside, and the stairwell is just colder? The handle on the office side could be transferring heat to the one in the stairwell.
If this was the case wouldn’t the other door handles in the stairwell also feel warm? I don’t think it’s a bad theory, but if the others don’t feel warm that’s more confusing
That part of the building could possibly just be warmer in general. Might not be super noticeable when inside, but it doesn't take much to stand out when in a hallway with cold hands.
I agree it feels like a bit of a reach, but it's the best hypothesis I can come up with.
I've considered that, but can't rule it out yet. I can feel the warmth when I stand in the lobby and haven't been in the stairwell yet, (closing the door behind me style) but I'm not sure that I've actually held both simultaneously.
But yeah perception is really slippery so I'll use the thermometer. I'll use some masking tape since I know they have trouble reading metals.
Trick knob with electronics inside ready to melt your hand off one day
I’m intrigued and very much want to know the answer. If you figure it out or have updates on the investigation, I’d appreciate it if you ping me :)
I have no answers, but here are a bunch of questions:
I wonder if it could be caused by the difference in ambient temperature on each side of the door. Is the stairwell on that floor noticeably cooler than the lobby? Is there less of a temperature differential on the door upstairs where the handle feels normal?
What is the hvac like in the stairwell (if there is any)? Could it be causing this?
Are the mysterious handle and door identical to the handle and door on the floor above?
I don't think there's any HVAC in the stairwell. I think the stairwell is colder than lobby in winter and pretty equal in summer.
I'll try to take some wall temps too.
I think the handles are the same on both floors it's not a remarkable handle, just like a brushed metal door lever.
Some office or institutional buildings have wild shit going on inside their walls. Metal doors can connect to a lot of things too by airflow, I have routed some Ethernet wires down through them while installing door cameras.
Hopefully it's like an airflow thing. Either way, probably not super building code compliant but like I'm one to judge
Time to invest in an infrared thermometer to check things out
I have a forehead thermometer we got during covid. It has a non-human mode. It seems to over estimate, but could detect the temperature change from me putting my hand on the wall for 30 seconds.
Is it says my walls are 25.6 Celsius, and the wall that had just been under my hand was 28.4C. Maybe it's off because it's white paint or something. I think as long as I'm always measuring from the same surface material it will be okay for measuring relative temperatures.
Good enough to disprove my perception.
Remember that you don't feel temperatures the way you think you do, you feel the rate of heat transfer between your body and the thing you're touching. As the top commenter said, most likely the handle is made of a material with a different heat conductivity.
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