Machine Room Size Calculator

Room Area is built entirely from the drive/machine package: estimated motor power (a function of Rated Load and Rated Speed) sets a machine footprint by Elevator Type, then controller cabinets, code-required clearances, and a 20% circulation-space multiplier the engine applies internally are stacked on top and multiplied by Number of Elevators. Hoistway Width and Hoistway Depth, despite being collected as inputs, never enter that chain -- they only feed the separate Area Ratio diagnostic output (room area divided by combined hoistway footprint), so widening or narrowing the hoistway you describe does not change the calculated Room Area itself. Rated Load and Rated Speed play an identical, symmetric role in the motor power estimate -- the power formula multiplies them together with no other weighting -- so nudging one by 10% moves Room Area by roughly the same margin as nudging the other by the same fraction. Number of Elevators is the input with the largest real effect on Room Area at the default configuration -- adding a fifth or sixth car to the bank multiplies the entire equipment-plus-clearance footprint proportionally -- but because the default value is a small whole number, a small percentage nudge often rounds back to the same integer and can look inert unless you change the count by at least one whole elevator. Elevator Type changes the machine footprint shape (hydraulic pump units are narrower than gearless traction machines, which need a large-diameter sheave), but the relationship is not a simple more-is-bigger scale -- geared traction (the default, type 1) actually produces a larger footprint than gearless (type 2) at these settings.

That is not the efficiency assumption at work: even holding drive efficiency equal between the two types, geared still comes out larger (40.3 m² vs. 37.8 m²). It is also not the starting footprint constants -- gearless's base machine footprint (1.8m x 1.8m = 3.24 sq m) is actually larger than geared's (2.0m x 1.2m = 2.4 sq m), the opposite of what "geared has larger constants" would predict. The real driver is each type's scaleFactor divisor, which controls how fast that base footprint grows with estimated motor power: geared divides motor power by 20 while gearless divides by 30, so for the same motor power geared gets a larger scaleFactor and scales its (smaller) base footprint up more aggressively than gearless scales its (larger) base footprint -- enough to flip the ranking and leave geared bigger overall. The 20% circulation allowance is already folded into the displayed Room Area — do not add a further clearance percentage on top of it.