Environmental Report Details Heat’s Costly Escape Through Elevator Shafts – NYTimes.com.
NEW YORK—Heat loss through elevator shafts via negative pressure is costly in terms of energy and money, according to a recent report focusing on New York City commissioned by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The report found that the amount of warm air lost in winter through the elevator shafts of the city’s 4,000 multifamily buildings that are at least 10 stories tall could fill 29,000 Empire State Buildings. Retrofitting the buildings, at a cost of $500 to $15,000 per building, would save owners across the city at least $11 million a year in energy costs and would cut carbon dioxide emissions by 30,000 metric tons, according to New York’s Urban Green Council, which prepared the study with architectural and engineering consulting firm Steven Winter Associates. The city’s building code requires that a third of a building’s vents be kept open at all times to allow smoke to escape during a fire. However, a recent change to the code allows for the sealing of elevator vents, which the report says are responsible for much of the heat loss.
