ELEVATOR SELECTION

General Consideration
Traffic Planning
Handling Capacity
Interval
Round Trip Time
Average Waiting Time
No. of Elevator
Speed of Elevator
Zoning
Elevator Door
TRAFFIC PLANNING
It is dependant on type and usage of the building

i.e. study of the population distribution and their predicted

pattern of flow within the day

It helps in selecting:
correct number and type of transportation devices
right sizes and speeds of the transportation devices
synchronizing traffic flow
optimum layout for the transportation devices
correct positioning in the building & in relation to one another
smooth flow of people and goods
HANDLING CAPACITY
total number of passengers that the system can transport within
a certain period of time

usually 5 minutes i.e. 300 seconds during the peak traffic

conditions (usually the morning up-peak*) with a specified
average car loading

It is expressed in percentage

HC = Handling capacity (percent)

RC = Rated capacity of the elevator (lbs)
I = Interval (seconds)
P = Number of passengers carried on a round trip / population frm 1st Landing
HANDLING CAPACITY

What is the main purpose of estimating handling capacity ?

If the handling capacity of a lift system is too small, there will
be lot of people queuing for the lifts during up peak hours

lift cars will have to go more round trips in order to clear off
the queue
Residential 7.5-9%

OFFICE Buildings with mixed tenancy

– different working hours 10-15%

OFFICE Buildings with Single tenancy

- same working hours 15-25%

[Source – NBC]
INTERVAL
It represents the theoretical longest time between elevator
dispatch from the main lobby

Calculated : Where
• I = Interval
• T = round trip time for one elevator
• n = number of elevators in the group

The following shall be guiding

factor for determining this aspect
AVERAGE WAITING TIME
Average waiting time is the average period of time, in seconds
that an average passenger waits for a lift

It is measured from the instant that the passenger registers a

landing call (or arrives at a landing) - until the instant the
passenger can enter the lift

Typically this would be the sum of the waiting times of all the
passengers divided by the total number of passengers
NUMBER OF ELEVATORS
It is derived from a traffic calculation

rules of thumb for estimating the number of elevators :

buildings with 3 or less elevator stops and gross area of less than 5,000
m2, provide a single elevator (Note where elevator service is essential, two elevators
shall be installed to ensure continuity of service)

buildings with 4 or more elevator stops and the gross area above 6000
m2 provide two elevators

gross area of the building exceeds 10,000 m2 provide a group of three

elevators
SPEED OF ELEVATORS
It is determined by travel distance and standard of service

It should be selected such that it will provide short round time

and 25 to 30 second interval, along with least number of
elevators to handle the peak loads

The taller buildings above 20 floors may have high-speed lifts

that do not stop at the first 10 floors

1
HANDLING CAPACITY
total number of passengers that the system can transport within a certain period
of time
usually 5 minutes i.e. 300 seconds

H = Handling capacity (percent)

RC = Rated capacity of the elevator
I = Interval (seconds)
P = Number of passengers on a round trip

INTERVAL TIME
It represents the longest time between elevator dispatch from the main lobby

Where
• I= Interval Time
• RTT = round trip time for one elevator
• N = number of elevators in the group
Round Trip Time - RTT
RTT - (single lift) is defined as the average period of time for
a car-trip around a building
Measured from the instant the car doors start to open at first
landing

RTT =
Entry + Exit time of the passengers on each floor +
Acceleration time + Stopping time + Single floor
flight time
Round Trip Time RTT
Basic assumptions :
1. All Passengers arrive uniformly in time
2. All floors equally populated
3. All cars load to 80%
4. Other operating time (like dwell time) ignored
5. Traffic controller is ‘ideal’

H is inversely proportional to T
T turn is proportional to RTT
UP-PEAK HANDLING CAPACITY

The number of persons that can be transported from the main

floor to the upper floors of a building during the worst up-peak
activity

UPPHC = (300 x Q) / T

Q = Average No. of Passenger carried in a Car – 80% of it

PERCENTAGE OF BUILDING POPULATION (POP)

obtained by dividing UPPHC value by the building’s population U
HANDLING CAPACITY STANDARD RANGE

Residential 7.5-9%

Buildings with mixed tenancy

– different working hours 10-15%

Buildings with Single tenancy

- same working hours 15-25%

[Source – NBC]
[Source – NBC]
REFERENCES

National Building Code of India, 2005, Part-8 Building Services, Section-5

Installation of Lifts and Escalators

Fred Hall & Roger Greeno ,Building Services Handbook, Fourth Edition 2007

A. Bhatia, Building Elevator Systems , Course No: A06-001 , Continuing

Education and Development, Inc. 9 Greyridge Farm Court Stony Point, NY

Open Courseware, Vertical Transportation, UTM Malaysia

ISR‐University of Coimbra (Portugal), Energy efficient elevators and

escalators manual, March 2010