In my apartment (my as in I reside here, I don’t actually own the edifice) there are three elevators: two service the lobby for each floor (let’s call these the lobby elevators) and the third is ostensibly a small service elevator with the access in a room off each floor’s lobby (let’s call this one the service elevator).
When I first moved here, I was curious as to why when one pressed the elevator call button for one lobby elevator, the other elevator’s call button did not alight. I asked the building superintendent and his response was that it was an energy saving scheme. Fine and dandy, I supposed, but what really happens is that most people I’ve noticed summoning elevators in this building press both elevator call buttons, and if they’re not carrying anything too large, they also press the call button for the service elevator.
Another thing is that if someone on the 4th floor (euphemistically referred to here as the F floor because of the bad connotations of the number 4) to descend to the lobby, the elevator will begin its ascent. When the F floor summoner gets onto the elevator, it’s possible (and I’ve seen it happen) someone on the 5th floor will summon the elevator for descent also. Since the F floor passenger has already depressed the selection button for the 1st floor, the elevator ignores for the moment the 5th floor summons, descends to the 1st floor, the passenger exits the elevator, and only then does the elevator respond to the 5th floor summons.
This all raises a few questions in my mind:
[ol][li]Is it cheaper to operate the elevators (a) with independent summons, or (b) with joint summons, the nearest elevator responding and the other elevator ignoring the summons?[/li][li]What would the effect be of having the elevator, after picking up the 4th floor passenger, responding then to the 5th floor summons and only then descending to the 1st floor? In other words, wouldn’t it be cheaper to operate the thing if it were to travel the shortest distance in response to all summons that come in?[/li][li]How would one program the elevators to function as in question 2 either independently or jointly?[/li][li]Should the service elevator be included in this dispatch scheme?[/li][li]How would you react if the elevator responded as described in question #2?[/li][li]Why don’t I just take the stairs since it’s only a lousy four floors?[/ol][/li]Okay, question #6 has two answers: (1) I’m lazy on occasion, especially when I get home from work, and (2) sometimes I’m carrying too much stuff to lug up and down the steps.
the answers to your questions would all depend on how the elevators were installed and set up in the beginnig. i am no elevator genius, but i have worked on the fire alarm recall portion of the elevator controls many times over the years. if your building elevators are controlled individually, (as it sounds from your desription) it would take a major overhaul to integrate the controls to work together. it is much more energy efficient for elevators to operate integrated controls than independently. in most integrated multiple elevator operations i have worked with, your option #2 is exactly the way it works. an elevator in the “up” mode will continue to answer all “up” calls, ignoring the selection of the “down” buttons untill all “up” summons are answered, then proceed “down”
the designated service elevators can also be included, but can have a keyed switch to set them for independent operation.
all elevators in multi storied buildings are required to be captured and sent to a safe floor in the event of fire detected in the elevator lobbies by the fire and elevator codes
I believe it’s cheapest to operate two elevators together, have them stay on the last floor used (don’t auto return to the first floor), and have the closest one respond to the summons.
Most people would think that the elevator was malfunctioning if they wanted to go down and it went up. The 4th floor passenger just might get off on 5 and walk down.
Elevator control systems vary quite a bit. You’ve got the old fashioned relay kind and the new fangled computer board kind. A computer board can be reprogrammed just by replacing the EPROM chip. A relay system is reprogrammed by re-wiring bunches and bunches of relays. Reprogramming the elevators could therefore be a fairly easy thing to do, or very very difficult.
Probably not.
The elevator in our old building at work was known to occasionally take detours, going up instead of down and stopping on random floors for no good reason. The first time the elevator goes where you don’t expect it to, my first gut reaction was to get off and walk. Once we figured out that the elevator was just slightly insane, we realized that eventually it would go down to the first floor so we stayed on it.