Hello,
Can any one remind me of the differences between a fire fighting lift and a fire escape lift? Are they one and the same?
Cheers,
They are absolutely not the same! Biggest difference is power supplies - according to the latest edition of BS 9999 evac lifts do not need dual power supplies unless you already have them in the building for other reasons (e.g. smoke control; pressurisation). You can normally use primary and secondary circuits from a single incoming supply. F/F lifts (in contrast) need a full BS 8519 compliant dual supply. This can make a massive difference in the cost, & in many cases when I've been told that evac. lifts are "
too expensive" it's because the designers have misunderstood the power supply requirements & have specified dual supplies.
What this means practically is that there's a relatively small difference in cost between evac lifts and 'normal' lifts - in fact you can turn the latter into the former by:
- upgrading the power supply circuitry (fire protected cable, dual routes, auto changeover);
- Altering the lift controller (within the lift car) to allow it to be taken under staff control;
- installing two-way emergency voice communications.
F/F lifts, in contrast, need the dual power supplies, water ingress protection, self-rescue facilities etc...
You can use F/F lifts as evacuation lifts with some minor modifications (e.g. lift controller alterations; BS 5839-9 EVCs in the refuges).
We design loads of evac lifts - even in low-rise. Once you talk the building users through the difficulties of using evacuation chairs (manual handling etc) they very often insist upon them - especially when we reassure them that the difference in cost is minimal. The most difficult thing is often getting the lifts associated with a BS 9999 compliant refuge, but you'll normally need these anyway, & on new build or major alterations it's normally not a massive issue,
