Patent ID: 7032715

Claim:
A method of assigning hall calls to reduce the net energy expenditure in operating a bank of elevator cars, the method comprising the steps of: assigning a threshold ratio value of energy saved per time delayed; in response to a hall call to receive a passenger, for each of a plurality of elevator cars, the plurality being selected from the elevator cars in the bank, calculating the energy use to answer the call and deliver the passenger to a destination, wherein the destination is selected from the group consisting of an inferred destination and a preselected destination; for each of the elevator cars of the plurality, calculating the ratio of (i) the energy which would be saved by assigning that car to the call versus assigning the car with the shortest time to destination to the call to (ii) the extra time to destination which would result by assigning that car to the call versus assigning the car with the shortest time to destination; and assigning the elevator car with the lowest calculated energy use that also has a ratio of (i) to (ii) at or above the threshold ratio value to answer the hall call.