Elevator in single-family house - Is fear of too loud air draft justified?

May I ask the reason for the elevator?

I think is still missing here :)

May I ask for the reason behind the elevator? It can’t be for barrier-free access for wheelchair users, since the design itself isn’t really suited for that.

Of course you can ask! I have an illness that makes it at least possible that I will be in a wheelchair in old age. The fact that the rest of the house is not yet optimized for that is because I don’t want to arrange everything for it already now and be reminded of it daily.

Oh damn. But it's good that you can plan ahead.

The reason the rest of the house is not yet optimized for it is because I don't want to set everything up for it right now and want to avoid being reminded of it daily.

I can understand that too. But I would not only then, but in principle, remove or narrow the narrowing offset in the front area of the hallway caused by the corner of the wardrobe, so that the hallway has a straight line. This also applies to the hallway on the upper floor in the same area, the essentially superfluous door to the bedroom (behind the dressing room), and I would basically omit the separate toilet in the master bathroom as well. One would think you won doors and corners by the dozen in a prize drawing.

I would at least reconsider all doors that are smaller than 90 cm. The stairs to the garage are used very rarely.

Until just now, I was only active as a silent reader here in the forum, but with the topic of elevators, I went ahead and registered. I do this professionally.

Main question: Wind noise
The state building code requires ventilation in elevator shafts (there are variations depending on the federal state). This is especially permanently open in older buildings and is at least 0.1m². Therefore, you will hear the noises at work. You will not yet perceive a draft at the passing speeds at which elevators in residential and office buildings < 10 stops travel.
Brief excursus:
0.15 m/s for so-called homelifts, which sometimes only have dead-man controls
~0.5/0.6 m/s for hydraulically driven elevators up to ~6 stops
1 m/s for standard rope elevators

The following two variants can provide relief:
1. cost-effective and usually unproblematic in private houses
Renunciation of shaft ventilation to the outside; then there are no problems with the energy saving ordinance and the blower door test. The necessary ventilation of the shaft can be led into the stairwell via a grille in the shaft head area.
2. variant used today in various buildings
An insulated louver damper is mounted in front of the necessary opening to the outside, which ventilates only a few minutes a day and monitors the elevator shaft via smoke detectors/ smoke aspiration and opens the opening if necessary.
3. There were/are also experts who agree to a calculation that all door gaps together meet the required 0.1m².

My tip: Contact the expert in advance via the elevator company and clarify the issue before there are surprises later.

Topic: Apartment door in front of the elevator door
This can be required for two reasons:
1. required as burglary protection by the insurance
2. fire protection, if there are several fire compartments in a building and fire-smoke spread must be prevented. This is, for example, the case with the mentioned topic of penthouse apartments. The lower floors are usually all in an open/necessary stairwell and are in the same airspace. Only the top stop leads directly into an apartment, so an additional fire and smoke protection door is required there.

If I can help with further questions, gladly.

Regards

Until now, I was only active as a silent reader in the forum, but when it comes to the topic of elevators, I registered. That’s what I do professionally.

I’m glad, expert knowledge is never wrong.

The state building code requires ventilation in elevator shafts (there are variations again depending on the federal state).

I don’t even remember mentioning which Austrian federal state this concerns ;-)