How to Choose an Elevator Air Conditioner: Six Things to Specify

Most elevator air conditioners are offered as one size fits most. That is worth testing.

Capacity is a calculation, not a guess. It depends on your car, your climate and your door traffic. Without the calculation, everyone is estimating, and the car shows it: cool at the vent, warm at the back.

What follows is how to choose an elevator air conditioner that actually fits: six things to settle before you order.

1. Give the supplier numbers, not adjectives

Elevator air conditioner sizing starts with a calculation. Ask for it, and hand over what it needs.

• Car volume, from the internal dimensions.
• How much of the car is glass. A glazed car in direct sun is not the same load as a steel one.
• Peak outdoor temperature and humidity for your city, not the yearly average.
• Door cycles per hour at peak. Every opening throws the cooled air away.
• Typical occupancy.

“Up to six passengers” is not a size. Ask which figures went into the number.

What an oversized unit does

It is not a safety margin. It is a different set of problems.

It is louder. A large compressor cycling on and off is more noticeable in a small cabin than a smaller one running steadily.

It draws more current for less benefit. You cool a car that was never that hot, then the compressor stops and the humidity comes back.

It wears faster. Short cycling is harder on a compressor than steady running.

It costs more to buy and more to carry. The extra mass sits on the car, and the balance calculation has to absorb it.

So the elevator air conditioner capacity figure matters in both directions. Too small disappoints. Too large costs money every month, in a car nobody complains about. This is the part of how to choose an elevator air conditioner that most buyers skip.

2. Cooling only, or cooling and heating

In a hot climate, cooling is the whole job.

In a cold one it is half the job. A cooling-only unit is dead weight for four months, and a cold car is as unpleasant as a hot one. If your building sees freezing weather, specify heating as well, and check how it is produced. A reversing heat pump is a different machine from an electric element inside an air box.

3. Fix where it goes before you choose a model

The mounting form of an elevator car air conditioner follows the car, not the catalogue.

• On the car top is the common choice. It keeps the cabin clear, and it needs headroom above the car and free floor area on the roof.
• Inside the car, in a bulkhead or above a dropped ceiling, keeps the roof clear. It costs cabin space and makes service harder.
• Integrated at build belongs to new installations. It is rarely open to you on a retrofit.

Settle the position first. The shortlist writes itself afterwards.

4. Ask for the noise figure, and for the mounting

This is the specification almost nobody checks, and the one passengers notice every ride.

The unit is bolted to the car. Compressor vibration travels straight into the cabin structure unless it is isolated. Ask for the sound pressure level at a stated distance, and ask what the unit sits on.

A noise figure without a distance means little. The same unit reads very differently at one metre and at three. And if the isolator is not in the kit, the hum arrives with the unit.

5. Check what the water system contains

An elevator air conditioning system makes water, and the car top is a poor place to keep it.

The minimum is a collection tray with a level sensor and a pump. A tray on its own is not enough. Neither is a fan that throws water at the condenser. Both overflow in a long humid season.

Ask what the unit does when the tank fills faster than it empties. A level sensor that stops the compressor is a different answer from a sensor that only lights a warning.

6. Price the consumables, not just the unit

Every elevator ac unit has parts that wear. Filters clog, pumps fail and level sensors drift. These decide whether the unit still works in year three.

Ask for the filter part number, the pump part number and the sensor part number before you buy. If those numbers are not settled yet, ask when they will be. Consumables without a part number are hard to source in a hurry.

Ask one more thing. Are the filters washable or replaceable? Washable ones are cheaper to run and easier to get wrong.

Six questions to put to any supplier

1. What capacity did you calculate for my car, and which figures did you use?
2. Does the unit heat as well as cool, and how is the heat produced?
3. What is the sound pressure level, measured at what distance?
4. What does the unit sit on, and is the isolator in the kit?
5. What is inside the water system, and what happens when it cannot keep up?
6. What are the part numbers for the filter, the pump and the level sensor?

Ask all six. Together they describe a unit you can still service in year three.

What to send

Send your car dimensions, the amount of glazing, your city and the door cycles you see at peak. We will come back with a capacity and the model that fits it.

بوتنسي supplies lift and escalator parts. What you get back is a number you can defend to whoever signs the order. The result is a car that feels the same on the tenth floor as on the ground. The machine behind it runs steadily instead of switching itself on and off all day.