The 7th Greater Pearl River Delta Conference on Building Operation and Maintenance
Analysis of standby power consumption for lifts and
escalators
Sam C. M. Hui (1), Chor-Yip Yeung (2)
1.
[email protected](1) Faculty of Science and Technology, Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong
Kong (THEi).
(2) Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong.
Abstract
Lifts and escalators are very important for urban cities like Hong Kong, for the operation
and functioning of high-rise buildings and other facilities. These transportation systems
constitute a significant part of the electrical power demand and energy consumption in
buildings. However, the information about their energy performance and energy saving
measures are limited. Very often, the energy is wasted during the idle and standby
situations. This research aims to study the principle and characteristics of standby power
for lifts and escalators so as to evaluate possible measures to control and reduce the
standby power consumption. Relevant research and technical standards have been studied
to identify useful information for assessing the standby power. Field measurements have
been carried out in 21 units of lifts and 14 units of escalators in Hong Kong to examine the
standby characteristics and energy consumption. It is found that the standby power
consumption is affected by traffic demand, operation characteristics, control methods and
drive technology. To reduce the standby energy use, it is essential to control non-critical
components (such as air-conditioning and lighting). Good potential for energy saving can
also be found in motor drive technology and smart controls.
Keywords
Lifts and escalators; standby power; energy consumption; Hong Kong.
1 Introduction
Lifts and escalators are also known as vertical transportation systems in buildings
(CIBSE, 2015) and they constitute an important part in total energy consumption of
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The 7th Greater Pearl River Delta Conference on Building Operation and Maintenance
modern high-rise buildings (So and Li, 2000). For urban cities like Hong Kong, lifts and
escalators are very important for the operation and functioning of high-rise buildings and
other facilities such as subway stations, airport terminals and shopping malls (EMSD,
2007). These systems constitute a significant part of the electrical power demand and
energy consumption in buildings (ISR-University of Coimbra, 2010). However, the
information about their energy performance and suitable measures to reduce energy
wastage are limited (De Almeida, et al., 2012). Very often, the energy is wasted during
the idle and standby situations or when the lifts and escalators are lightly loaded (Frazier,
1999; Uimonen, et al., 2016).
In recent years, energy efficiency of lifts and escalators has attracted more and more
attention in the world as many countries are developing policies and programmes to
control energy use of vertical transportation to enhance energy conservation in buildings
(De Almeida, et al., 2012; Sachs, 2005; Sachs, Misuriello and Kwatra, 2015). However,
the lack of detailed information about the pattern and usage of energy consumption in
vertical transportation has hindered the strategy to achieve effective energy saving for
these systems. At present, some research studies and methods have been developed for
assessing the energy consumption of lifts and escalators during normal running mode
(Al-Sharif, 2004 & 1998; Carrillo, et al., 2013). But the effect of standby power
consumption, which often occupies more time than the running mode, has not been fully
understood and evaluated.
This research aims to study the principle and characteristics of standby power for lifts and
escalators so as to evaluate possible measures to control and reduce the standby power
consumption. Relevant research and technical standards from other countries (such as
Germany, UK and USA) have been studied to identify useful information and theories for
defining and assessing the standby power. Field measurements have been carried out in
21 units of lifts and 14 units of escalators in Hong Kong to examine the standby
characteristics and energy consumption. It is believed that the standby phases offer
particularly high potential for cost-effective energy savings.
2 Energy consumption of lifts and escalators
Nowadays, lifts and escalators are used commonly for different purposes: convenience of
occupants, barrier-free access in a building, serving high-rise structures, and moving
heavy loads in industry and businesses. They can account for a significant percentage of
energy consumption in buildings. CIBSE (2015) indicates that vertical transportation
constitutes 3-8% of the overall building energy consumption. For urban cities with many
tall buildings, it will contribute a significant portion of the electricity use and peak
demand. For example, it is estimated that there are more than 62,000 lift units and 8,700
escalators in Hong Kong (EnB, 2015); they contribute 7%-15% of electricity use in
commercial and residential buildings. It is very important to promote energy efficiency
for these installations (EMSD, 2007).
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2.1 Energy saving potential
In Europe, the E4 Project (short for “Energy Efficient Elevators and Escalators”,
http://ec.europa.eu/energy/intelligent/projects/en/projects/e4) was carried out in recent
years to analyse the energy efficiency potentials and policy measures for lifts and
escalators (ISR-University of Coimbra, 2010). The results indicate that considerable
technical efficiency potentials exist for lifts (more than 60%) and escalators (around 30%).
However, various market barriers prevent the diffusion of these energy-efficient
technologies and measures (De Almeida, et al., 2012).
In fact, the amount of power at normal running mode and standby mode is basically
independent with each other. That means low frequency of use does not imply low
consumption during standby mode. A research project in Switzerland (Nipkow, 2005)
with 33 lift units found that the standby energy accounted for 25% to 80% of the total lift
energy consumption. Another project in Europe determined that standby consumption of
lifts and escalators could represent up to 95% of total energy consumed of the
installations (De Almeida, et al., 2012). The research findings clearly indicated that the
standby demand is a significant factor in the overall consumption and is greatly
influenced by the usage pattern. With low frequency of use and high standby usage ratio,
more than 65% of energy use could be saved by reducing the standby consumption in lifts
and escalators.
2.2 Principle of energy analysis
In general, the energy inefficiencies of lifts and escalators can come from direct and
indirect causes. Direct causes are equipment oriented, which depends on how
energy-efficient of the component used, while indirect causes are operation oriented,
which depends on the user behaviour and traffic management (ISR-University of
Coimbra, 2010). The energy efficiency in lift and escalator systems can be assessed and
optimized by studying the performance of these two aspects. Figure 1 shows the major
factors affecting the energy consumption of lifts.
Figure 1 - Major factors affecting the energy consumption of lifts
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For most lift and escalator installations, the electricity supply is separated into two
feeders: the main power and the ancillary power. Table 1 shows the typical items for
them and other related equipment. The main power is connected to the controller,
motor drive, converter and brake, doors, critical lighting and direction indicator. The
ancillary power is supporting the equipment such as lighting, ventilation fans, cooling
and heating, alarm devices, CCTV, displays, consoles and emergency battery supplies.
It is believed that the ancillary equipment is the main issue affecting the standby
power.
Table 1 - Main power, ancillary power and other equipment
For lifts:
Main power Controller, motor, converter and brake, doors
Ancillary power Car light, ventilation fan on car, alarm device and
tele-monitoring, emergency power supply (battery)
Other equipment Hoistway light, machine room light and ventilation
For escalators or moving walks:
Main power Controller, motor, converter and brake, step gap lighting, comb
plate lighting, direction indicator
Ancillary power Lightings (balustrade, etc.), remote alarm and monitoring
Other equipment External machine room light and ventilation
* Information adapted from ISO (2012).
To assess the energy consumption in lifts, five different methods can be used
(Al-Sharif, 2004): (a) measurements, (b) calculations from first principle, (c)
calculations using tables and rule of thumb, (d) combinations of measurement and
calculations, and (e) computer modelling and simulation. For escalators, as they run
continuously regardless of passenger demand, they consume a fixed amount of energy
if not boarded by passengers (Al-Shariff, 1998). In order to assess the energy use of an
escalator, it is necessary to evaluate its behaviour in terms of traffic such as people per
hour, loaded and unloaded periods of time, and so on (Carrillo, et al., 2013). The
service performance, intensity and passenger load depend on building type, purpose
and population (Markos and Dentsoras, 2016).
2.3 Technical standards
Two sets of technical standards are widely used in the world for the energy efficiency
assessment of lifts and escalators. They are VDI 4707 (VDI, 2009, 2013 & 2016) and
ISO 25745 (ISO, 2015a, 2015b & 2012) which are broadly similar in structure. VDI
4707 is a voluntary guideline established by the German Association of Engineers
(Verein Deutscher Ingenieure, VDI) for evaluating the energy efficiency of lifts. This
guideline was created with the aim of enabling easy calculation of the typical energy
demands of a lift installation depending on its use. The total energy demand shall be
the summation of travel demand and standby demand. It defines an energy label with
the energy efficiency class of the lift (A to G) and provides a figure for a yearly
nominal energy demand (kWh per year).
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ISO 25745 sets down standard procedures to be used when making energy
measurements and checking energy conformance. The standard provides a consistent
method of measuring actual energy usage of an installed lift, escalator and moving
walk. It also offers a simple method to periodically verify that energy usage of an
installed unit (existing or modernized) has not changed. The standard considers all
escalators and inclined moving walks up to a rise of 8 m and horizontal moving walks
with a length up to 60 m (this represents about 85 % of worldwide installed units). In
ISO 25745, the concept of standby mode is well-defined and divided into 3 parts.
Usage pattern is deeply considered to determine the ratios of time spent in standby
mode. Analysis of standby mode is more specific than VDI 4707 in terms of period
and components.
3 Standby power consumption
In general, the normal operation of vertical transportation is divided into two parts:
running and standby. For most building types, lifts and escalators are idle far more
than they are moving. It is found that the average standby period is three times higher
than the average travel time for vertical transportation (De Almeida, et al., 2012). For
lifts with relatively low frequency of use (such as in residential buildings), the
proportion of total energy use attributed to standby situation can amount to more than
75% (Nipkow, 2005; Sachs, 2005). As standby power components are usually not
inherent to the core functions in the mechanical and electrical aspects of vertical
transportation, reducing standby power should be fairly easy to implement and can be
very cost effective.
3.1 Definitions of conditions
To evaluate the standby power of lifts and escalators, it is fundamentally crucial to
understand the different conditions of operation. Table 2 shows the basic definitions of
idle, standby and load conditions for lifts, escalators and moving walks. For testing of
lifts, a reference cycle is applied to represent the running mode. It is the cycle during
which the empty car is run from the bottom terminal landing, to the top terminal
landing, and then back to the bottom terminal landing including two complete door
cycles (ISO, 2015b). After the cycle running, the lift will be allowed to “rest” for a
while (say, five, ten or thirty minutes) at the lowest landing. An energy measurement
will then be made with the lift maintained at the lowest landing; this will give the
standby energy consumed. According to ISO (2015b) and VDI (2016), energy
consumption of standby mode shall be counted from idle condition. Therefore, the idle
condition shall also be a part of standby mode.
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Table 2 - Definitions of idle, standby and load conditions
For lifts:
Idle condition when a lift is stationary at a floor following a run before the
condition standby mode is entered
Standby condition when a lift is stationary at a floor and may have reduced the
condition power consumption to a lower level set for that particular lift
For escalators or moving walks:
Load condition in which an escalator or moving walk is running with one or
condition more passengers
No load condition when an escalator or moving walk is running at nominal
condition speed without passengers
Standby condition when an escalator or moving walk is stationary and powered
condition on and can be started by authorized personnel
* Information extracted from ISO (2015a & 2015b).
3.2 Standby modes of escalators and moving walks
The standby condition for escalators and moving walks as shown in Table 2 refers only
to a stationary situation with authorized manual starting. According to ISO (2015a),
the standby situation of escalators and moving walks consists of three modes:
a) Automatic Low-Speed Standby: The condition when an escalator or moving walk is
running at slow speed without passengers. Consumption in this mode is usually
close to half of the consumption during the normal operating mode.
b) Automatic Stop Standby: The condition when an escalator or moving walk is
stationary and powered on and can be resumed by passenger walking through.
Usually electricity consumption is at its lowest during stopping.
c) Manual Stop Standby: The condition when an escalator or moving walk is
stationary and powered on and can be started by authorized person. Power is
needed in stop-standby modes because the lighting, sensors, drives and control
panel still consume energy.
Very often, automatic low-speed mode and automatic stop mode are mutually
exclusive in one escalator or moving walk. That means the escalators or moving walks
usually only have single energy saving feature in standby mode. In general, the
standby mode will be activated when there is no passenger detected for a certain time
by sensors built near the entry of the escalator or moving walk (Uimonen, 2015). The
time depends on the settings by the manufacturer, building designer or building
manager. In case the escalator or moving walk is stopped automatically after low speed
mode is operated for a certain amount of time, standby consumption is considered to
be the summation of the consumption for automatic low-speed, automatic stop and
manual stop modes (Uimonen, et al., 2016).
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3.3 Components of standby power consumption
As shown in Table 1, the electricity consumption of lifts and escalators is related to the
main power and ancillary power. The components of standby power and energy
consumption will vary depending on the system design and associated ancillary
equipment. For example, Nipkow (2005) has identified two major factors that can
cause unnecessarily high standby consumption in lifts, namely, continuously running
cabin lights and door locking devices. He also found that lift control device and
frequency converter may be significant in the standby consumption. Other components
such as floor display and operating consoles (in each floor and inside the lift car) have
relatively small influence. However, if other equipment and devices such as
air-conditioner and display screens (for weather and advertisements) are installed, they
will contribute to the standby consumption.
For escalators and moving walks, it is believed that the ancillary power for balustrade
lightings, remote alarm and monitoring are usually small compared with the main
power. Hence, the major components of the standby consumption are related to the
items of the main power. As described in the previous sub-section, the standby
consumption is the combined effect of automatic low-speed, automatic stop and
manual stop modes. Therefore, the control and operation methods, electrical and
mechanical design, as well as passenger characteristics must be considered when
assessing the standby performance (Uimonen, 2015).
4 Field measurements
Field measurements and evaluation according to ISO 25745 have been carried out in
21 units of lifts and 14 units of escalators in Hong Kong to examine the standby
characteristics and energy consumption. A calibrated Hioki PW3198 Power Quality
Analyzer and related electrical instruments were used to measure the main power and
ancillary power. For lifts, the daily standby (non-running) energy consumption was
determined from the summation of energy use in the idle, 5-min standby and 30-min
standby periods. The idle power, 5-min standby power and 30-min standby power
were measured using the instruments on an average basis. The time ratios of each
non-running mode were determined from ISO 25745 based on the usage category.
Therefore, Annual standby energy (kWh) = Non-running time (Hour) x 100 x [Idle
power (W) x Idle time ratio + 5-min standby power (W) x 5-min standby time ratio +
30-min standby power (W) x 30-min standby time ratio].
To investigate the influence of standby consumption for the technologies of recent
years, all selected units were installed within 5 years. The selected units are from
commercial and residential buildings, schools, railway stations, industrial buildings
and shopping malls. Table 3 shows the details of the lift units and Table 4 shows the
details of the escalator units. The energy consumption model and usage categories in
ISO (2012) were used to estimate the annual standby and running energy consumption.
Then the annual standby-running (annual S/R) ratio was calculated for each unit by
dividing the annual standby energy (kWh) by the annual running energy (kWh).
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4.1 Analysis of the lift units
Figure 2 indicates the annual running and standby energy consumption of the 21 lift
units. It is clear that standby consumption is a very important issue and it represents
10.4% to 98.5% of the total lift electricity consumption. The most important factor
affecting the annual S/R ratio for the lifts is the number of trips per day. As shown in
Table 3, the annual S/R ratio range from 0.12 to 30.97. In general, the higher the
number of trips per year assumed for the usage category, the lower the annual S/R ratio
will be. Some variations of the annual S/R ratio may come from the lift specification
such as rated speed and rated load.
The idle power of the 21 lift units varies from 208 W to 2576.9 W. These variances can
be explained by the fact that high power consuming equipment such as air-conditioner
is installed in some lift units. If a lift does not have air-conditioner, typically, the idle
power is around 200 W to 500 W only. After idle condition, the lift will enter into
standby condition and the energy saving features will bring down the standby power
significantly. The power reduction from idle condition to 5-minute standby condition
is much larger than that from 5-minute to 30-minute standby condition. It is because
during standby modes the energy is mainly consumed in control panel of motor drive.
The control panel must be in “ON” state in order to transmit the signals and make
decisions to maintain the lift in a safe condition and ready for turning on the slept
equipment. It is found that the lift units with higher vertical rise and rated speed have
larger power consumption during these standby periods.
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Table 3 - Details of the lift units selected for field measurements
Lift No. Standby Standby Annual Annual Annual
Ref. Building Vertical of Rated Rated Idle Power in Power in Standby Running S/R
No. Type Rise Floor Load Speed Power 5 min. 30 min. Energy Energy Ratio
(m) (kg) (m/s) (W) (W) (W) (kWh) (kWh)
L1 Commercial 28.3 8 1600 1.6 394.0 246.1 157.5 2747 268 10.25
L2 Industrial 10.2 3 8200 0.5 2390.8 139.8 89.5 3597 2611 1.38
L3 Residential 7.0 3 750 1.0 1318.0 127.9 95.9 2358 299 7.88
L4 School 9.6 4 1800 1.0 1413.2 211.5 152.2 2447 79 30.97
L5 Industrial 4.6 2 4000 1.0 2438.5 117.8 81.3 5474 2310 2.37
L6 Industrial 4.6 2 630 1.0 1338.5 118.3 94.7 3322 591 5.62
L7 Railway 17.4 3 1800 1.0 341.4 167.7 119.1 7216 4078 1.77
L8 Commercial 13.5 3 1600 2.0 407.5 264.8 174.8 2301 1395 1.65
L9 Commercial 15.0 3 1800 1.0 278.0 158.5 112.5 1534 2014 0.76
L10 Commercial 12.1 3 1600 2.0 398.5 258.1 170.3 2254 4238 0.53
L11 Residential 11.0 2 900 1.6 1334.9 252.6 161.6 4859 2025 2.40
L12 Residential 152.8 46 900 3.5 2576.9 1288.5 811.7 13456 14740 0.91
L13 School 35.0 8 2000 1.8 1565.0 370.8 248.4 5914 7295 0.81
L14 Commercial 121.3 31 1800 3.0 2297.7 1122.5 684.7 11694 17012 0.69
L15 School 60.0 12 2000 1.8 1649.8 488.4 317.4 6311 15277 0.41
L16 Residential 60.3 13 1600 2.5 833.5 649.5 357.2 4496 4781 0.94
L17 Residential 13.3 6 1600 1.6 416.3 264.4 169.2 2220 5825 0.38
L18 Commercial 116.6 16 1600 3.5 2269.6 1091.1 741.9 10741 15326 0.70
L19 Railway 4.8 2 1000 1.0 424.2 118.7 84.3 1398 4394 0.32
L20 Commercial 5.1 2 1000 1.0 208.0 120.1 81.7 883 7631 0.12
L21 Residential 83.9 20 1600 4.0 2165.1 895.7 573.3 6107 20365 0.30
Figure 2 - Annual running and standby energy consumption of the lifts
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Table 4 - Details of the escalator units selected for field measurements
Automatic
Escalator Vertical Escalator Step Motor Rated Standby Annual
Ref. No. Building Type Rise Inclination Width Power Speed Direction Mode S/R Ratio
(m) (degree) (mm) (kW) (m/s) Feature
E1 Commercial 5.0 30∘ 1000 8.0 0.5 Up Start-Slow 0.31
E2 Commercial 5.0 30∘ 1000 8.0 0.5 Down Start-Slow 0.34
E3 Commercial 4.7 35∘ 1000 7.5 0.5 Up Start-Slow 0.39
E4 Commercial 4.7 35∘ 1000 7.5 0.5 Down Start-Slow 0.45
E5 School 5.2 30∘ 1000 8.0 0.5 Up Start-Stop 0.05
E6 School 5.2 30∘ 1000 8.0 0.5 Down Start-Stop 0.05
E7 Shopping mall 5.0 30∘ 1000 8.0 0.5 Up Start-Slow 0.35
E8 Shopping mall 5.0 30∘ 1000 8.0 0.5 Down Start-Slow 0.38
E9 Commercial 7.1 30∘ 1000 15.0 0.65 Up Start-Stop 0.28
E10 Commercial 7.1 30∘ 1000 15.0 0.65 Down Start-Stop 0.3
E11 School 5.0 35∘ 1000 9.2 0.5 Up Start-Slow 0.3
E12 School 5.0 35∘ 1000 9.2 0.5 Down Start-Slow 0.31
E13 Railway 6.0 30∘ 1000 15.0 0.65 Up N/A N/A
E14 Railway 6.0 30∘ 1000 15.0 0.65 Down N/A N/A
4.2 Analysis of the escalator units
For escalators, it is noted that the travel and standby demand could not be found from
the standards (Carrillo, et al., 2013). Therefore, a method for counting of time spent of
the running, standby and stopping was implemented and introduced. The power
consumption was determined in different states of operation. They include
measurements over a period of 5 minutes when running at nominal speed, in a stop
mode and finally, if available, in a low-speed mode. To be safe, measurements were
made for empty escalators only. To take passenger load into account as found in real
systems, the annual consumption values were calculated by multiplying annual
running consumption with a typical load factor. Then the annual standby-running ratio
was calculated for each unit.
As shown in Table 4, the annual S/R ratios of the escalators are rather low (0.05 to
0.45). That means the standby period and related power consumption for these
escalators are small. In most of the time, the escalators are either fully utilized or
completely shut down. On the other hand, the annual S/R ratio of the escalators with
start-slow feature is around 0.3 to 0.4 no matter what the technical specification of the
escalator is. It is because the escalators were set to move at 0.4 times of the rated speed
when the escalators were turned into standby mode. Small deviation may be found due
to the consumption in ancillary power. For example, some balustrade lighting of the
escalators would not be turned off even in the standby mode.
Moreover, it is found that the annual S/R ratio of the upwards escalators are typically
lower than that of downwards escalators for the same condition because escalators
would consume more energy during moving upwards.
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5 Discussions
For comfort reasons (smooth acceleration, precision braking, etc.), modern lift drives
are already equipped with highly efficient technologies, and these are now also
available for hydraulic lifts, using energy storage. This means there are significant
efficiency potentials in the area of drives and motors, especially when old systems are
to be replaced (Sachs, Misuriello and Kwatra, 2015). Such a trend in lift modernization
can help reduce standby consumption in existing buildings with old lift systems.
The electricity in standby mode is mainly consumed in lighting, ventilation,
air-conditioner, buttons and signage. For lighting and signals, energy efficient LED
devices are already very common in the market and have been used in many lift and
escalator installations. At the same time, energy savings can be unlocked by smart and
intelligent automatic control system. Standby solutions power down the ancillary
equipment when it is not in use, providing substantial energy savings, especially in
buildings with periods of low usage. For example, in-car smart sensors and software
automatically switch to a “sleep mode,” turning off lights, fans, music, and video
screens when unoccupied (Kwon, Lee and Bahn, 2014).
Although standby power of lifts and escalators is small compared with running power,
the influence of energy contribution should not be overlooked because the standby can
be held for a long duration. Generally, the standby period will occur in the mid-night
for most building types and the lifts are seldom switched off because some passengers
may need to use them. On the other hand, the standby period will last longer during the
weekend and holidays. For some buildings such as schools and universities, during
holidays and semester breaks, the lifts and escalators are at very low usage and should
better be shut off.
In order to promote energy conservation further, lifts and escalators are now covered in
some building energy efficiency standards such as ASHRAE Standard 90.1 (Sachs,
Misuriello and Kwatra, 2015). Table 5 shows the lift car efficiency requirements in
ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2013. It specifies minimum efficiency levels for car lighting
and ventilation and sets standby-mode requirements for them. This can enhance the
awareness in the market and facilitate the development of relevant energy efficiency
policies and technologies.
Table 5 - Lift car efficiency requirements in ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2013
Component Requirement
Lighting For the luminaires in each lift car, not including signals and
displays, the sum of the lumens (lm) divided by the sum of the
watts shall be no less than 35 lm/W.
Ventilation Car ventilation fans for lifts without air conditioning shall not
power limitation consume over 0.7 W per L/s at maximum speed.
Standby mode When lift car is stopped and unoccupied with doors closed for over
15 minutes, car interior lighting and ventilation shall be
de-energized until required for operation.
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6 Conclusions
In the past, standby power of lifts and escalators was often overlooked because of its
small amount compared with the running power. In fact, the research worldwide in
recent years indicated that the duration of standby period is usually many times longer
than the normal running period. As a result, the standby power/energy consumption
can be as high as 95% of the overall consumption in vertical transportation.
The results of field measurements for 21 units of lifts in Hong Kong showed that
standby consumption represents between 10.4% and 98.5% of the overall lift
consumption. The field study for 14 units of escalators also indicated high potential for
energy savings. The current research findings in Hong Kong are in line with the
previous studies conducted in Europe and other countries. It is hoped that useful
information and more knowledge on the energy performance of lift and escalator
systems in urban cities and high-rise buildings can be gradually established.
It is found that the standby power consumption is affected by traffic demand, operation
characteristics, control methods and drive technology. To reduce the standby energy
use, it is essential to control or turn off non-critical components (such as
air-conditioning, lighting) in lift car and escalator. Good potential for energy saving
can also be found in motor drive technology and smart controls.
7 Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express sincere thanks to those people who were supporting
the field measurements and providing useful information for the research.
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