Any establishment must take precautionary measures to ensure that only authorized personnel enter or leave their premises. Otherwise, you will have myriads of security threats in your hands, ranging from petty thieves to big-time worries like terrorist attacks. While having security personnel manning the entrance points is advised, having enough of them manning each floor can be pretty expensive.
However, you automate some security checks, and the elevator access control can be a great security tool. This article will explore some of the options various buildings have in terms of security based on their height and traffic.
Types of Elevators based on Building’s Height and Traffic
- Single Elevator Access Control
Single elevators are standard in shorter and low-volume buildings. This type of elevator is the simplest to set up than those found in taller and high-volume buildings. They are common in residential apartments as compared to office blocks. Business setups usually receive high foot traffic as staff and visitors flock to the various offices up and down a building. For the single elevators, some security access measures may include:
- Having the elevator locked at certain times of the night
- Only residence of the building have keys to the elevator; which they must return to the building’s administration in case they relocate elsewhere
- Ensuring tight control on how keys are distributed to the residence. That is, how many keys per household, whether or not they are allowed to make copies
- Elevator Banks
This type of elevator is common in taller and high-volume buildings. They come with what some would call an expensive destination dispatch system. However, the system may appear costly based on its initial setup cost. Still, it leads to a lot of time savings on the day-to-day operations since when a person keys in the floor they want to go to, the system will call up the alogically fastest elevator.
That leads to time-saving, and redundant elevator call-ups do not overwork the multi-elevators system. This system is standard in large and very busy buildings where elevator delays can lead to long wait times and long queues at the elevator doors.
- Smart Elevators
This type of elevator is also common in tall and high-volume buildings and comes with multiple elevators. With a smart elevator, passengers first key in the floor they want to go to before entering the elevator. Once they have keyed in the floor, the elevator system will then call up an elevator that will take them to their desired floor with minimal stops on the way.
Cutting-edge technology development with smart elevators includes the integration of AI and connected systems. These developments will reduce the wait-time and transform the upward trajectory of the smart elevators. If you are considering setting up a smart elevator at your building, here is a checklist of things you should first consider.
Types of Elevator Access Controls
The list above looked at the types of elevators, from those suitable for shorter and low-volume buildings to that ideal for tall and high-volume buildings. The list below will be looking up at the various elevator access control configuration; that is, which visitor is allowed to alight at which floor within a given building.
- Public Elevator with Private Access to Certain Floors
To save on cost, this elevator access control system allows a building to have elevators that serve anyone but will grant access to particular restricted floors to very specific people. In a nutshell, the configuration is set up in a public elevator where anyone can call up the car from – say, the lobby – but they can only access very specific floors once inside.
However, staff or residence working or living on the restricted floors will have certain credential cards that will unlock access to their given restricted floors. They can only access the floors they are intended to and not any other restricted floor, well, in addition to the public floors.
- Private Elevator for General Access to any Floor
In this case, the elevator is not public and is allowed to just the authorized persons. These persons can call up the elevator and, once inside, can get off at any floor of their choice; they can access any floor. The elevator is fitted with a reader in the lobby, not a call button, as is the case with a public elevator. The reader will only allow authorized personnel with authorization cards to call up the elevator.
- Private Elevator with Private Access to Selected Floors
Only authorized individuals with the access cards can call up the elevator at the lobby in this elevator. However, once they are inside the car, they can only access specific floor(s), with the rest of the floors being restricted from them.
As it works out, the passenger will need to swap their card on the reader at the lobby to call up an elevator. Once inside, they will again need to swap their card inside the reader to get off at just the allowed floors. The rest of the floors will require a different card authentication to let them to get off.
Wrapping up
The elevator security types given above are by no means exhaustive; please visit Getkisi.com. Also, for a list of some of the best elevator companies, read this web page.
