How many elevators does my building need?
Under-elevatoring a building creates permanent congestion at peak hours; over-elevatoring wastes shaft area and capital. Getting the number right is a traffic-engineering calculation, not a guess based on similar buildings.
The two numbers that matter
Handling capacity (HC%) — the percentage of the building's population the elevator system can move in 5 minutes during peak traffic. Typical targets range from 11–17% depending on building type (offices need higher HC% than residential).
Interval (INT) — the average waiting time between elevators arriving at the main floor during peak traffic. Lower is better; typical targets are 25–35 seconds for offices, up to 60–90 seconds for residential.
What we factor in
- Building population and floor-by-floor occupancy
- Peak traffic pattern (up-peak, lunch, down-peak)
- Number of floors and typical trip distances
- Building use (residential vs. office vs. hospital have very different traffic shapes)
This is exactly what our Elevator Design service calculates before recommending quantity, capacity and speed — not a rule of thumb applied blindly to every building.
Want this looked at on your building specifically?
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