Sorry, I forgot to ask about opinions on automated accordion gates. Bad idea?

Are you certain you can legally put a 'home' elevator in a condo?
Since it's serving multiple 'residences' and not 1 person's home, I suspect you may have difficulty getting the install to meet code. (Not sure what your area's requirements are though.)

As well, most residential elevators i looked at had a max of 3 stories of lift, and lower max floor heights than yours as well.

I agree: you need to check code. Typically a residential elevator is only allowed in single family homes, and they have a maximum 5 stops/50 feet of travel (I might be slightly off on this; I'm going by memory). And yeah, they only run at 30-40 fpm, which IMO is way too slow for 6 stops.

I'd recommend you install a normal commercial passenger elevator. It's possible that your local AHJ would allow a LU/LA (smaller, slower, commercial elevator), but you'd need to check.

I have no idea on the solar power issue...can you get 3-phase power off that?

That's not a residential application, and no AHJ would allow anything less that a commercial installation.

Thank you for the responses. I'm sorry, but I should have been more clear. The residential elevators are servicing only ONE residential unit each. Each of the elevators will only access one residential unit and cannot be used to access any other unit. In addition to the residential elevators, I do have a single LU/LA in the plans which will service several residential units.

A name from the past. MightyAnvil says hi.

Most building departments in my region will allow a unit in a condominium to be designed under the single-family code except where elements of it are shared with other units.

The issues to be considered are the load on and the modifications of the structure, the speed and the number of stops. To deal with those issues it is best to hire an elevator consultant or start talking to elevator companies. You will also need a structural engineer perhaps one familiar with the original design.

Have other owners added elevators?

Renovator8 - Blast from the past indeed! Hello to you, MightyAnvil and others! I remember the soundproofing debate we all had many years back - very informative (at least for me LOL). I've had some whacky ideas over the years and it's nice to have some unbiased feedback from experienced people like you and others.

I'm actually building this condo concept from scratch. Yes, another whacky idea I've been dreaming up for years. I've been wanting to take an urban building (in the middle of the urban core) completely off the grid with the utility only as a back-up. Basically, all the units will operate 100% on photovoltaics coupled with a large Li-Ion battery bank, inverters and BMS. The local utility here is a bit of a tyrant (and monopoly) and has recently come out with a plan to charge flat fees of up to $71/month to residents even if they use no power at all. I realized years back this would happen to power producers so this is the next step in being independent from the utility.

I've had a very very hard time getting accurate power consumption figures from elevator manufacturers. The townhome/condo design is one that almost requires the use of the residential elevators to make them easily accessible. Of course there are stairs one could take... but traversing two flights of stairs every day just to access their front door isn't very appealing. I've read mixed reviews about elevators here and reliability seems to be a concern... but then again most of the comments I've come across were for older residential units - not current makes. The machines seem very simple yet are prone to failure more often than I would expect. The installer stated that the units have improved dramatically over the years in terms of reliability, efficiency and cost. I've been told that they are much more reliable than commercial units. But I'm not sure if this is just typical elevator sales guy talk as online reviews are mixed. I was hoping to get some feedback from people that use and rely on their residential elevators on a daily basis. I know people that own residential units here but they rarely use them.

I'm going with prestressed/prefabricated concrete panels for this project and the hoistways have already been spec'd per the mfg's requirements. I was originally going to frame out the hoistways but was worried about noise transfer so am now going with concrete enclosures.

Oaktown - thank you. I've been told that the faster options were in the LU/LA category and that hoistways would need to be built larger and the power requirements go through the roof. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any middle ground between speeds. Either fast or painfully slow.

I am definitely going with powered accordion gates. Having to open and close two separate doors TWICE per trip seems awfully cumbersome. I was actually hoping to use a residential elevator that had standard elevator doors (like a commercial set up with horizontal bi-parting doors) similar to the Mitsubishi SVC200 but they aren't available in my neck of the woods.