Focus FM were commissioned to undertake an assessment of the energy usage of the installed vertical transportation equipment (lifts and cradles) at 1 Kingdom Street, and to make any relevant recommendations for future improvements.

Due to the lack of any sub-metering on the lift and cradle installations the energy consumption figures were calculated based on modelling using the Elevate software. This enabled us to estimate the total lift energy consumption to be approximately 125,000 kWh/year, which is around 2% of the total annual consumption of the building.

The lift equipment was found to be generally of an efficient, modern type (installed in 2007), well maintained, and in good condition. As such there was limited scope for improvements in terms of lowering the energy consumption of the equipment.

Opportunities to reduce energy consumption were identified by managing the out-of-hours operation of the lifts and the 24/7 conditioning of the lift motor rooms, as well as undertaking a detailed analysis of the Destination Selection Control system with a lift manufacturer to determine its effectiveness.

We also made recommendations to replace lift lighting with LEDs, to increase the AC temperature set-points in motor rooms to 20°C, and to promote the use of staircases for inter-floor travel to multi-floor occupiers.