[OKC] The Green Lantern: Escalators vs. Elevators

[Miles, Karen]

Escalators vs. Elevators 
What's the greenest way to get to the second floor?
 
By Nina Shen Rastogi
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How much energy do escalators use? They keep those things running all
day long! Should I take the elevator instead?
 
When it comes to energy use, all escalators are not created equal. The
bigger an escalator is-the higher it rises and the wider its steps-the
more juice it needs to go trudging along its endless, circular path. The
amount of traffic it gets also makes a difference.
 
As with elevators, escalators can vary widely when it comes to energy
consumption. According to a representative of Power Efficiency
Corporation, a company that designs energy-saving devices for
escalators, your average unit in a shopping mall-which has a 7.5
horsepower motor, rises 15 feet above the ground, and is kept running 14
hours a day, six days a week-might use about 7,500 kilowatt-hours of
electricity in a year. A bigger escalator that runs all day and all
night in a convention center or hotel-say, a 20-foot-high unit with a
20-horsepower motor-would use roughly 31,000 kWh annually. A
continuously running escalator of the kind you'd find in airports or
subway stations-35 feet high with a 40 horsepower motor-would use around
60,000 kWh annually. (For comparison's sake, the average American home
consumes 11,040 kWh in a year.) 
 
So how do moving stairs stack up against elevators? 
 
Read the article at URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2262690/
 
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