Stair Lift for Emergencies

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Apologies for the long post I got carried away.

Our building has five floors and 15 apartments with three apartments in each floor. I live on the fifth floor. We have many old people and few with walking problems.
This week we had a problem with our building lift (elevator). The technician came and said he needs to replace a part. It took two days to get the lift operational again.
We also have stairs but they are not too wide about 87cm.
During these two days, I was able to go down and up again on foot. The going down was easy but climbing up with groceries five floors was very hard, especially doing the fourth and fifth floors and my daily quota was just once.
I suppose I should do a lot of exercise to strengthen my legs, but I am a lazy person and always take the lift.
Anyway, I started thinking about what to do if the lift doesn't work for a longer period and I thought a stair lift might be a good solution.
The problem with the stairs is that we can't have a continuous stair lift to all the floors because each floor has a lift and one apartment door next to the stairs and the only possible solution is to have separate five stair lifts.
Each stairway has three sections
Section A - 6 steps
Section B - 6 steps
Section C - 5 step
Total steps for each floor = 17 steps
Total steps for the whole building = 17 x 5 = 85 steps
Section A starts next to an apartment door and the tenants will not like the noise of a stair lift going up and down. Therefore climbing up section A (6 steps) is inevitable.
Section B is straight and has a landing area of about 1m x 1m so one option is to have a straight stair lift for just section B (6 steps) and climb section C (6 steps), or second option is to have a bent rail 90 degrees to climb also section C (5 steps), which would be ideal but I think a lot more expensive.

There you have it:
Option 1:
Climbing up section A (6 x 5 = 30 steps total), straight stair lift for section B only, Climb up section C (5 x 5 = 25)
Total 30 + 25 = 55 steps which is equivalent to going up 55/17=3.3 floors

Option 2:
Climbing up section A (6 x 5 = 30 steps total), straight stair lift for section B and bent rail for section C
Total 30 steps which is equivalent to going up 30/17=1.7 floors.

Problems:
1 - Not all tenements would be interested in paying for stair lifts that they might not want to use especially those living on floors 1 and 2, but they will not mind the installation as it it is only in cases of emergencies.
This means the tenants from 3rd, 4th and fifth floors would cover the cost.
2 - How to charge the stair lifts batteries.
Since the chairs are not inside an apartment, there will be a problem with making sure that the batteries are fully charged, would mean the use of long electrical cables from each apartment.

3 - Vandalism.
Having these stair lifts unguarded could attract attention and possible vandalism by strangers.

Please post your comments if you have experience with using stair lifts and what are the problems that you see with these solutions.
Also a rough ides about how much the whole thing might cost.

These clips has given me the inspiration to look for this solution, but it looks too expensive especially if we need it only in case of emergencies and not for daily usage.

Straight stair lift

Curves stair lift
 
I thought stair lifts recharged themselves when in the parked position. But in all honesty it is a big expense for something that will only get used occasionally. Maybe a chair on each floor to sit and have a rest.
 
Do they still make this one ?

 
I thought stair lifts recharged themselves when in the parked position. But in all honesty it is a big expense for something that will only get used occasionally. Maybe a chair on each floor to sit and have a rest.
You are right, but the expense will be divided by 15 apartments maximum and if the 6 tenements from 1st and 2nd floors won't chip in, then we will have 9 apartments to share the expense. I just need a rough estimate about the cost, before contacting local companies.
The chairs is a good idea. Will keep this in mind.
 
I don't suppose one of these would be any good???

 
You cant have trailing cables - you need to factor in having electrical spurs fitted to suitable locations.
 
I would check with the local fire brigade first.

As you may find you have size restrictions over the stair lift. In a fire you have to be able to use the fire escapes without it blocking anyone.

Stair lifts take a lot of winding by hand when the electric fails, I have a mate who works as a retained fire man, when they turn out to a call they have to take it in turns to wind the “key” to move it.

Lifts should not be used in an emergency!
 
If you find it hard to use the stairs when you have a load of groceries and the elevator is out then may I suggest having a dumb waiter installed somewhere that it can be used by all in this type of situation?


No need for a stair lift that would/could be in the way during an emergency.
 
If you find it hard to use the stairs when you have a load of groceries and the elevator is out then may I suggest having a dumb waiter installed somewhere that it can be used by all in this type of situation?


No need for a stair lift that would/could be in the way during an emergency.
A dumb waiter can't be installed in our building and the groceries can be limited to only few kilos, at least from my side.
We can always arrange a delivery by the local grocery shops.
I wouldn't call having the lift not working as a case of emergency and the chairs of the stair lift will not be in the way after folding it. The video clips show a luxury chair. I am thinking of a very cheap kind of chair that will be simple, light weight and yet do the job.
 
No problem with that. We have electric wires running all over the stairs to supply electricity to electric bulbs.


In any case the landlord's services supply, the one that provides the entrance, hallway and stairwell (timed) lighting (for which you no doubt get charged a service fee) would be employed to trickle charge any batteries
 
In any case the landlord's services supply, the one that provides the entrance, hallway and stairwell (timed) lighting (for which you no doubt get charged a service fee) would be employed to trickle charge any batteries
We don't use such services in our building. We have an elected committee from the apartments owners who are responsible for collecting money to run the different services such as running the lift, cleaning, gardening, paying the electricity bill, etc. I am in charge of technical matters and interface with the company that service the lift. It is much cheaper this way and most buildings have similar committees.
The charging of the batteries is going to be the hardest problem in my opinion.
I will look for a solution that doesn't use electricity, perhaps a hand crank??
 
I will look for a solution that doesn't use electricity, perhaps a hand crank??
In view of the high amount of daylight and sunshine in TA I would have thought a solar panel on the roof would be the answer surely (or should that be Shirley?)
 
In view of the high amount of daylight and sunshine in TA I would have thought a solar panel on the roof would be the answer surely (or should that be Shirley?)
Too much bureaucracy makes it not worth while chasing for approvals.
But I read that the chair batteries don't need much power to run.
Another problem that comes to mind is that children and young boys would want to use these chairs for joy rides so I need to have a lock on these chairs. Would that be a special order?
 
Too much bureaucracy makes it not worth while chasing for approvals.
But I read that the chair batteries don't need much power to run.
Another problem that comes to mind is that children and young boys would want to use these chairs for joy rides so I need to have a lock on these chairs. Would that be a special order?

My mum's home stairlift definitely had a key to allow it to be disabled, I may even have a photo somewhere
 
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