The Elevator’s Role in connecting business

680 Folsom – San Francisco – Elevators “connected business”

 

The project:

 

680 Folsom, built in 1963, is located in the Market District in San Francisco. The building remained largely unchanged until it was acquired by a development company in 2006. It was after this acquisition that the need for a smart, innovative, scalable system for BEMS arose. Part of the requirements included the integration between Honeywell’s Pro-watch Security System and Mistubishi-Electric Elevators. On Honeywell’s recommendation, the local security integrator contracted ESI to design, develop and commission this interface, a first of its kind.

The notion of “connected business” was one of the requirements that ESI was asked to focus on, in order to leverage technology to maximise the efficiency of the physical space and in doing so achieve the business objectives specified. Energy savings, operational efficiencies and high-tech security functionality were all key in connecting business.

 

The Solution & Benefits:

 

ESI rolled out their proprietary integration solution fit; Flexible Integration Technology, which sat on top on ProWatch and allowed them to integrate the BEMS system with the Mitsubishi Destination Dispatch elevator, a first such case in the US. This would allow the facility to have a ‘Destination Oriented Allocation System (DOAS) rather than the typical “up/down” or two button elevator system. The system groups passengers by destination which decreases both how long the trip takes, as well as waiting time for the passengers.

 

Passengers arriving in the lobby enter their destination on the lift’s keypads, simultaneously behind the scenes the elevator is assessing all requests from all floors, and working out which elevator the passenger should get on. Apart from making things more efficient, the integrated solution, enabled by fit, also helped make the system greener by reducing energy consumption by grouping trips. Furthermore, the security aspect of the system was further enhanced since fit allowed complete customisability. For example, someone working in offices which are on floors 3-6 would only have access to those floors. Access to other floors would not be allowed. There are of course allowances and passes for visitors, but they are tightly controlled by security and are only given access to the floor they need to visit.

Microbiz, a security integration company, along with ESI engineers, used HSDK to create fit that tied in with the security access control as well as video management and the Destination Dispatch system. The system used in this building also contributes to the companies’ bottom line since it reduces energy costs and makes operations more efficient.

 

“Honeywell’s HSDK allowed us to efficiently craft the language for the systems and develop an application (fit) and middleware to interface the security with the elevator controllers” said David Chritton, Microbiz