Residential elevators, or home elevators, are a type of elevator designed for private residential buildings, or small commercial buildings.
Overview
Residential elevators are often not as complex or expensive as full commercial elevators. They are typically small, usually have a capacity of 2-4 persons, and only serve 2-5 floors. They may have unique design characteristics suited for home furnishings. There are two types of landing doors used in residential elevators; manual hinged wooden shaft-access doors and metal sliding doors, usually two-speed center opening type. Construction may be less robust than in commercial designs with shorter maintenance periods, but safety systems such as locks on shaft access doors, fall arrestors, and emergency phones must still be present in the event of malfunction.
Elevator fixtures in residential elevators are relatively simple. The call button panel only has one call button, and sometimes have floor position indicator. The car operating panel only contains the floor buttons, the door controls, the alarm button, and a small floor position indicator. Some elevators do not have door close button.
Drives system
Hydraulic
Residential elevators use modern hydraulics to produce a smooth, quiet ride while occupying a minimum amount of space. These hydraulic systems are quiet, producing about the same amount of sound as a typical refrigerator, which makes them well suited for residential use. They can be operated at any hour without causing disturbance. Hydraulic residential elevators are very rare.
Traction
Many modern residential elevators are now using traction drives, either bottom drive or machine room less type. Bottom drive types have winding drum motors on the elevator pit, and do not use a counterweight.
Notable manufacturers
These are some elevator manufacturers that manufacture residential home elevators. Some of these manufacturers are subsidiaries from the main companies that manufactures passenger elevators.
- Aritco Lift
- Acme
- BNF (only for public housing blocks built by the Housing and Development Board (HDB) in Singapore)
- Cibes Lift
- Canada Home Elevator
- Garaventa
- GFC
- Guangri
- Hitachi Elevator
- IGV
- Kalea Lifts
- Mitsubishi Electric
- Mitsubishi Hitachi Home Elevator (only sold in Japan)
- Otis (still available in some countries outside the United States)
- Panasonic Home Elevator Co., Ltd. (a subsidiary of Panasonic Electric Works, only sold in Japan)
- Residential Elevators, Inc.
- Sakura Elevator
- Savaria Concord
- thyssenkrupp Home Solutions (formerly ThyssenKrupp Access)
- Vimec Lift
Videos
Happy Easter Special 2 Very Nice OTIS Gen2 Home Elevator at Jimbaran Corner, Bali
OTIS Gen2 residential elevator at Jimbaran Corner Building, Bali, Indonesia (installed in 2011) (video: SchindlerLift1874)