Nov

30

Once upon a time I measured how much electricity it takes to ride on an elevator – I measured about 50 elevators – and seem to be the only person who ever measured that and got the results published. Before, there were numerous scholarly papers published on elevator energy use, all guesses or estimates or computer models (same thing), very “scholarly” because they had footnotes referencing other published guesses and because you paid a lot of money for someone to do that “research”. Several multinational elevator companies were selling energy efficient elevators, but none of the companies knew how much energy a ride took – they had “data” on how much their elevator used in one year vs. an ordinary elevator – an unspecified number of rides, unspecified number of stops (floors), unspecified weight in the cab, etc. All just made up “data”. Surprise, none of the manufacturers wanted me to measure their elevator.

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  1. Rod Clifton on December 1, 2025 12:55 am

    Thank you Mr Gifford. I am not quite sure I understood all you wrote but am glad you wrote nevertheless. Certainly esoteric and entertaining, at the same time.
    Thanks as well to Mr Niederhoffer for creating this forum for thought. I just hang in the cheap seats, with a hand cupped to an ear, hoping to learn something new.

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