Having taken the world by storm when they were first introduced, elevators have come a long way from being novelties to being bare necessities. Imagining life in this world without elevators is an improbability in modern times. Big cities would not have been what they are without elevators. They can be found everywhere — taking workers up to their offices in high rise buildings through several floors and also deep into the ground to subway stations. Another extremely common location to find elevators is residential buildings. With residential elevators becoming cheaper and cheaper with each passing day and people seeking to add convenience to their lives in larger numbers, residential elevators are now an intrinsic part of every home’s décor. Home owners nowadays seek to add elevators to their dwelling places not only for convenience but also for the increased resale value of the property.
Many people want to make a style statement and as such they go about installing elevators in the very own home. No matter where they are placed, elevators are divided into three different categories depending on the type of motion they execute and the way they do it — hydraulic, cable lift, and pneumatic. Out of these, hydraulic and pneumatic elevators are best for smaller buildings and homes. A hydraulic model pushes the cab up through the hoist way from below and is regulated by hydraulic oil that fills up a chamber. Pneumatic elevators, on the other hand, operate much like a vacuum, and a cab is sucked up through a hoist way to different floors, where it is locked in place. In addition to this, pneumatic elevators work on suction. Hence they do not require machine rooms. This absence of machine rooms severely cuts down the cost of installing a pneumatic elevator and makes installing one a much cheaper option than installing a hydraulic model.
Cable elevators, on the other hand, consist of traction drive and winding drum models. The latter is more common for homes and the former is more of a commercial model. But, in either instance, the cab is lifted up through the hoist way by a series of pulleys and cable. They work on the principle of counterweights and hence the cab remains suspended in the air. For this reason, experts advise against using this type of elevators in earthquake prone areas.
There are also many different types of commercial editors that operate in the same way. The only difference between a home-based elevator and a commercial area to is in the number of people they can hold. Remember the then you want to go about installing residential elevator, it is vital that there is enough of space in your home so that you can have that you can have the right type of designing needed. Unlike a typical residential elevator, commercial elevators have the capacity of holding a minimum of 10 people. When installing a residential elevator, a space should be available in your home for a hoist way or consider a pneumatic design, in which the hoist way is part of the setup.