[Taxacom] Compactus and gain in storage space

[Doug Yanega]

>Hi
>
>Anybody know more or less what percentage gain in storage space there is
>when converting traditional closed herbarium cupboards for a compactus
>system, assuming that the compactus will have more or less the same
>dimensions as the original cupboards?

This is easy to calculate: the primary function of a compactor system 
is to eliminate the aisles between storage units. If you plan to 
retain the same storage units, then the space you will gain is almost 
exactly equal to the space occupied by the aisles you will lose (if 
installing a single continuous bank of compactor units, then you'll 
keep only one aisle from the original N, and lose N-1). Only a few 
inches are needed between adjacent closed compactor units. The wider 
the aisles relative to the storage space, and the more of them in the 
original floor plan, the bigger the percentage gain in space. Since 
those are variables depending on the kind of storage units, and 
quirks of architecture, there is no good "rough" number one can use 
to generalize, though I can't imagine it would ever equal or exceed 
double (i.e., 100% increase) the original capacity (that would 
require that *over* half the original floor space was empty aisles). 
Figures that high are generally only possible when either additional 
floor space is included in the compactor "footprint" or when the 
storage units themselves are replaced with more space-efficient units.

Peace,
-- 

Doug Yanega        Dept. of Entomology         Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314        skype: dyanega
phone: (951) 827-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
              http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82