Elevators and Escalators Energy Performance Analysis

Elevators and escalators are the crucial element that makes it practical to live and work several floors above ground. In the EU-25 there are more than 4,8 million elevators and 75 thousand escalators and moving walks. Elevators use about 4% of the electricity in tertiary sector buildings. This paper presents a technical analysis to the final results of the audits performed in the scope of IEE project E4, whose overall objective is the improvement of the energy performance of elevators and escalators, in the tertiary sector and in the multifamily residential buildings. A total of 82 equipments have been measured, and a collection of load curves, including the characterization of standby consumption, is also presented. There is a high energy savings potential with respect to energy-efficient technologies, investment decisions and behavioral approaches, in these sectors. The E4 project characterized people conveyors electricity consumption in the tertiary sector and in residential buildings in the EU-27, according to a common developed methodology. Standby consumption of an elevator can represent up to 80% of the total energy consumed per year, and can be drastically reduced (more than 65% is possible), by reducing the standby consumption and using more energy efficient technologies.