Are elevators required to have a battery backup if generator is not an option?
- Thread starter Cartoon1
- Start date
- Status
- Location
- Illinois
- Occupation
- retired electrician
There are always requests to the fire department to open elevators with people in when there is a power failure, so I don't think they require backup.
Other than a hydraulic elevator, it would take a substantial battery system to provide enough power to move it to the next floor and open the doors.
Other than a hydraulic elevator, it would take a substantial battery system to provide enough power to move it to the next floor and open the doors.
gadfly56
Senior Member
- Location
- New Jersey
- Occupation
- Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
This is a combination of the IBC and elevator code (ASME 17.1) in your jurisdiction, not an NEC issue.
kwired
Electron manager
- Location
- NE Nebraska
- Occupation
- EC
I don't know enough about elevators but seems would be possible to release a brake or other holding means and let gravity take it down to at least the next lower level and not need a lot of power to do so.
PaulMmn
Senior Member
- Location
- Union, KY, USA
- Occupation
- EIT - Engineer in Training, Lafayette College
Stiltz home lifts says,
"Unlike traditional home elevators, Stiltz Home Elevators are freestanding and require no hydraulics or supporting walls. Like any major appliance, our residential elevators run on a standard dedicated 220 volt 15 amp wall outlet.
Eliminating the need for a shaft, the home lifts travel ‘through the floor’ on self-supporting dual rails. Each Stiltz home elevator includes top-of-the-line safety features that allow the user to stay mobile, even during a power outage!"
They don't say if that's up and down, or just down to the next lowest level.
"Unlike traditional home elevators, Stiltz Home Elevators are freestanding and require no hydraulics or supporting walls. Like any major appliance, our residential elevators run on a standard dedicated 220 volt 15 amp wall outlet.
Eliminating the need for a shaft, the home lifts travel ‘through the floor’ on self-supporting dual rails. Each Stiltz home elevator includes top-of-the-line safety features that allow the user to stay mobile, even during a power outage!"
They don't say if that's up and down, or just down to the next lowest level.
PaulMmn
Senior Member
- Location
- Union, KY, USA
- Occupation
- EIT - Engineer in Training, Lafayette College
Stairway lifts are often battery powered-- the 120 plug is to keep the batteries topped off.
We had a lift for my father. The round pipe had large gear teeth segments (cog railway?) inside. The chair had a battery-powered gear drive to crawl up or down the 'gear' in the pipe. Don't know how many trips the chair could make on pure battery power.
We had a lift for my father. The round pipe had large gear teeth segments (cog railway?) inside. The chair had a battery-powered gear drive to crawl up or down the 'gear' in the pipe. Don't know how many trips the chair could make on pure battery power.
Typically the battery for a small elevator isn't much. It doesn't allow it to go up, only drift down to the next or first floor and enough power to operate the door. The small residential 2 story elevator in this house I bought last year has a glorified 220V computer Tripp Lite UPS doing that job. It has a couple replaceable gel-cell batteries inside. The emergency lighting is a separate small gel-cell and some automotive type dome lamps.
A bigger concern might be if there is a phone in the unit. Once land lines went away, it became a lot harder to get a phone indie the unit if someone gets trapped inside.
One thing I discovered is that elevator companies are not big on supporting the electrical and electronics for a long time. It is very common for "upgrades" to be sold after not a lot of years. Once that thing is installed in a building, it isn't going anywhere. It would be very uncommon to rip it out and put in a new one. So, the circuit boards and various lift mechanisms become unsupported after a number of years and you really have to either repair what you have or replace the inner workings. It is very common for elevator circuit boards to be chip level repaired by some specialty company.
A bigger concern might be if there is a phone in the unit. Once land lines went away, it became a lot harder to get a phone indie the unit if someone gets trapped inside.
One thing I discovered is that elevator companies are not big on supporting the electrical and electronics for a long time. It is very common for "upgrades" to be sold after not a lot of years. Once that thing is installed in a building, it isn't going anywhere. It would be very uncommon to rip it out and put in a new one. So, the circuit boards and various lift mechanisms become unsupported after a number of years and you really have to either repair what you have or replace the inner workings. It is very common for elevator circuit boards to be chip level repaired by some specialty company.
- Status