Planning And Installing Lifts In Buildings

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For anyone to internally experience the beauty of a tall building, at the core, the view, access and transportation between floors must be smooth and, in that context, the elevators play a prominent role and could be termed as the spine of the building!

So, it is critical to have careful consideration and planning of the lift installation bearing in mind the structural stability and its safe functioning. And as much as the lifts are expected to be smart, they need to be fitted with a functioning alarm system, to alert any eventuality of breakdown.

From an installation perspective, one needs to ensure the use of correct equipment, access shafts, proper storage of equipment and installing the equipment as per the manufacturer's guidelines and very importantly setting out the site until final commissioning and maintenance.

Without compromising on the safety aspect and easy access for mobility-impaired individuals from across the floors, it is important to tie the overall design with the décor of the building. From an engineering perspective, drive mechanism, functionality and specification play an import-ant role in the lift's installation, whereas the building user capacity and passenger times determine the sizing.

Once installed, the lifts need to be efficiently run and maintained, to ensure safety and higher experience of the users at all time, and above all protect the stakeholder's investment.

Elevators generally account for around 5 percent of a building's energy use, however, the older installation with lesser efficiency could take up about 2-3% more energy. In such cases, the efficiency could be improved by modernizing or upgrading the lifts, to give an immediate return on the energy-efficiency investment. Simply by replacing out dated hardware (many elevators are running long past their useful lives) and investing in some of the sophisticated software now on the market, building owners can make immediate and substantial energy savings.

When upgrading elevators, building owners should consider whether their lifts are hydraulic or traction. The traction elevator is more efficient as com-pared to the hydraulic hoists. Another advantage of modern traction elevator is they don't require a machine room, like the motors and other equipment normally housed there have been redesigned to fit into the lift shaft. This creates more usable space, less heat and consumes less energy.

Review and up-grade of the hardware such as type of motors, lighting system, doors, starters, landing systems, and internal fixtures could further improve efficiencies.

From a soft-ware perspective, we have seen breakthrough improvements in the last 2 decades, mainly on the control systems which enables for operating lifts intelligently with sophisticated user experience. This also enables for remote maintenance monitoring and problem resolution.