Latest / NOXTalks / Forty-Four Thousand Elevators, One Deadline

Transcript

Forty-Four Thousand Elevators, One Deadline · NOXTalks

• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Knox Talks, the podcast exploring the groundbreaking ways technology shapes our built environment.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: On December 14th, 2011, Suzanne Hart was stepping into Elevator 9 at 285 Madison Avenue when the car accelerated upward with its doors open.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: She died in the lobby.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: The city's investigators concluded the safety circuit was still bypassed when the elevator went back into automatic service.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: Today, we're diving into the retrofit rules that followed and the money and the data behind them.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Nox Talks is brought to you by Seven Knox, after hours HVAC scheduling and billing for commercial buildings.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Find every episode at sevennox.com slash NoxTalks.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: New York already had retroactive elevator rules.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: What that morning added was door lock monitoring.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: In 2014, the Department of Buildings required it on every automatic passenger and freight elevator by January 1st, 2020.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: The controller won't run the car automatically on a faulty door circuit.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: Champion Elevator's president estimated around 44,000 elevators were affected, and a property manager quoted in the same New York Times reporting put the cost at$15,000 to$25,000 for an older car.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: Industry estimates, not audited totals.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: The second wave is the one on your desk now.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: By January 1st, 2027, every existing traction elevator in the city with a single plunger brake must either be converted to a dual plunger brake or fitted with unintended car movement protection.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: That's ASMEA 17.3, section 3.8.4.1, as adopted into Appendix K of the city's building code, and the Department of Buildings sent its final reminder in July 2026.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: This provision doesn't cover hydraulic elevators.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: A permit on file is not compliance.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: The inspection and test have to be performed, witnessed, and signed off.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: Why does a New York rule matter in Perth or Auckland or Dallas?
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: Because the protection it points at, ASMEA 17.1, Section 2.19.2, is the North American reference.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: The European standard, EN8120, requires unintended car movement protection on new lifts, and Australia has adopted that standard identically as AS 1735.1.2.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: New York has made it mandatory for existing cars.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: Your jurisdiction may follow.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: Vertical transport is often the largest service contract in a high-rise, and most owners can't answer three questions about it.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: First, do your elevators have single plunger brakes?
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: The brake configuration lives in your contractor's records, and in New York, the brake drawings and approval letters sit in your machine room, not at the department.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: Second, what will compliance actually cost and when?
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: Habitat Magazine reported in 2019 that full modernization ran$175,000 to$350,000 per elevator.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: Historical reporting, not today's budget.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's where owners need to be careful.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: A mandatory safety retrofit and a full modernization are two very different investment decisions.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: Combining them can make sense, but make sure the quote separates what the code requires from what the contractor recommends.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: Less than three months out, when we get to it, is not a date.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: Third, who owns the elevator's monitoring data?
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: Many modern controllers log door cycles, faults, callbacks, and downtime.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: Otis, for one, publishes an API for availability, callbacks, alarms, and traffic that can feed a building management system.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: But read the terms.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: Otis's documentation says that license runs only while Otis holds the maintenance contract and restricts its use.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: Ownership, access, retention, and portability are separate rights.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: Owning the data doesn't guarantee the other three.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the broader lesson from 285 Madison Avenue.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: Critical safety systems need proper testing and independent protection.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: But owners also need visibility in defaults, maintenance activity, and equipment performance.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: One doesn't replace the other.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: So, three things to do this quarter.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: Confirm the brake configuration for every car from the machine room drawings, the permit history, or your own survey before your contractor tells you.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: Get the compliance quote in writing, itemized by car with a completion date tied to the deadline.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: And add one clause to your service agreement, giving the owner read-only access to the elevator's event and fault data exported in a format you keep.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: One fatal accident exposed a safety weakness, and the retrofit that followed was estimated to touch 44,000 elevators.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: The next deadline is about brakes.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: The lesson goes further.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: You can't manage what you can't see.