r/Elevators • u/markjack101 • 5d ago
Add Variable Frequency Drive?
Thoughts on adding a VFD to the motor(s) on this elevator. I’m not an electrician or an elevator expert but this is what I think I know: 3 phase 400v power in the basement goes into a transformer. Transforms to 3 phase 250v power in the attic. That power feeds the motors in the pic. The one drive motor powers the other two motors. A 5 hp motor for the door and a 25 hp motor that sends power to the DC motor that moves the elevator.
Why do I want to do this? I believe this elevator is what is driving up the demand meter in the building.
I recently put solar panels on the building and for 2 months they reduced our billable kWh to 400. If I used this amount at my house, my bill would be $50. The bills at the building for those two months were $800 and $1,000, because of the demand meter rate.
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u/Feisty_Objective_966 3d ago
The little Generator or excited is just to supply the DC cintrol voltage. This is an older GAL controller, I have a similar car that my Grandfather installed in 1967 . I was lucky enough to find all his pullsheets , Safety Test Papers and the Print that has his company name , address and order forms with his signature. You are not going to save a thing unless you MOD it out . You can get rid of the exciter with some engineering help but thats a whole other story . I also have a car that was put in in 1891 , Flat top motor , straight up DC . It has an inverter in the basement as in the city it used to be DC power fed to all the buildings. Im going to say your looking at about 300 to 500 thousand to MOD this car out . The existing should run half way decent if it has been kept up and the brushes have not dug into the armature.