Elevator Shaft w/Exterior Glass Wall

[Wareagl487]

I have an elevator shaft with en exterior wall that is entirely glass. It is in a parking deck of all things. I have never had this scenario before so looking for options on how to treat the shaft. The project is located in the deep south.

The senior dude in the office believes the shaft should be served by an independent HVAC unit. I think that approach would be a colossal waste of energy and money. My option is to provide an opening as low in the shaft as possible and another at the very top with both having motorized damper interlocked with a T'stat (shut them closed in winter). The movement of the car would act like a piston and move the air around.

I know very little about elevator's and options available, but can't they be equipped with some sort of self contained HVAC unit riding on the top of the car? I did a google search and found some China made pieces of equipment using "elevator HVAC" as the search parameter - but can't tell if what I found is really used for the cars. Did a quick look on Otis Elevator web site but found nothing there to speak of.

Thanks for any help/opinion offered.

Andy W.

 

[317069]

why don't you talke with your senior, he has to exlain his openion to you and finde together what you have to do, this is his job

 

[KLH]

We've done many elevators and never heated, cooled or ventilated an elevator shaft....only smoke vents at the top of the shaft and cooling in the machine room. Then again, we've never had a shaft with a glass wall.

Who's requiring HVAC in the shaft?

 

[walkes]

Is the elevator on the north side? Normally going in an out of the parking structure, people should be dressed appropriately such that for the brief amount of time they are in the elevator they should be fine. (assuming the architect didn't stick it on the south side of the structure).

Normally we don't have to deal with the elevator shaft and car (other than smoke venting if required), we do condition the machine room to meet the manufacturer's requirements though.

 

[Wareagl487]

I'm like you guys, never had to deal with something like this other than the normal venting of the shaft and addressing heat in the machine room.

Walkes, the exposure is east facing as is seven (7) levels of continuous glass.

 

[MintJulep]

Is shooting the architect still an open option?

Open the bottom, open the top. Let natural convection do its thing. Don't put in any dampers - waste of money. Some service tech will only jumper them full open anyway.

Put an exhaust fan in the roof of the cab. Turn it on high speed when the doors open.

Tell the elevator man to make sure that the cab parks with the doors open at the lowest level.

A cab top HVAC unit will fail because it won't be designed to operate in the exceedingly hot shaft environment.

Hope that nobody every gets stuck inside in the summer.

 

[IRstuff]

Even cinder block stairways get oppressively hot with no windows.

7 stories of glass, say, 10 ft wide, 10-ft stories, and 500 W/m^2 load --> 65 kW. Low-e coatings and tinting on the windows would cut that down drastically.

You can also probably help the problem by using some forced ventilation in the shaft, coupled with a small roof-mounted AC on the car. Some parking structure elevators are VERY slow, and it would be nice to be in an AC'd environment, at least for the duration of the ride.

TTFN
faq731-376

 

[KiwiMace]

You should be putting top and bottom vents anyway. Naturally or fan ventilate the shaft and air-con the lift car.