Lab Energy Management

Fume Hoods/ Safety Cabinets• One fume hood uses enough energy annually to power 3.5

households. • Keeping a sash completely closed on a VAV hood reduces the hood’s

energy consumption by 60% or more! • To encourage researchers and laboratory technicians to do this,

inspection of fume hood sashes could be part of laboratory safety inspections.

• Use 18-inch sash height • Adjust hood fans to reduce the throughput volume• Don’t block the fume hood sash • Use appropriately designed storage cabinets rather than fume

hoods to store chemicals and equipment.

Facts on Fume Hoos

• Close fume hood sashes when not in use. – Fact: If a fume hood is not in use, keeping the sash

wide open wastes about $1,500 in energy costs per year per hood.

• Lower fume hoods. – Fact: Lowering the fume hood height from 12

inches to 2 inches in hundreds of labs in five science buildings saved Harvard University an estimated $100,000 in utilities.

Refrigerators/Freezers Procedures:• Provide freezers/refrigerators with proper spacing (2-3 inches

minimum clearance from walls or obstructions) and defrost freezers at least once per year.

• Clean freezer/refrigerator filters and coils every six months.• Eliminate unnecessary freezers/refrigerators by getting rid of

unnecessary items and combining contents into fewer freezers/refrigerators.

• Instead of buying a freezer/refrigerator for additional space, eliminate old samples, solutions etc. from existing freezers/refrigerators.

• Keep refrigerators and freezers organized (give each person a section) so that clean up/removal of old samples is easier. Before a person moves on from a lab, ask them to get rid of unnecessary samples and condense their items into the smallest space possible.

• For researchers with walk-in coolers or freezers, you should properly load the unit. Overloaded refrigeration units result in disrupted airflow, while under loaded units are using more energy than needed7.

Lab Equipments

• Turn off power strips and unplug unused devices to stop electricity “phantom loads” Examples: Centrifuges, cold traps, fans, monitors, printers

Office/Desk space

• Set your monitor to go to sleep mode after 20 min of inactivity. (Start Menu> Control Panel>Power Options) – Fact: Computer monitors consume half of the energy used to power the

computer.• Turn off computers at the end of the day. (Leave on one night per week for

updates.) – Fact: IU offers the Go Green Gadget that will help monitor and reduce your

computer's energy consumption. Or visit RePower's video guides to setting your computer to go to sleep after 5 minutes.

• Ditch the screen savers. – Fact: LCD monitors don’t need them and they use unnecessary additional energy.

• Use a laptop instead of a desktop. – Fact: A laptop can save 80 – 90 % of the energy a desktop uses.

• Use the power save mode on office equipment.

Lighting

• Turn off lights when the lab is unoccupied.

• When working in a specific area such as a desk, use small area lamps instead of overhead lights that illuminate the entire laboratory.

• If the building design allows, maximize the use of sunlight to illuminate the lab.

Doors

• Some labs are located near exit doors that let hot or cold air into the laboratory. In this situation, doors to individual labs should be closed.

Future purchasing of laboratory equipment

• Before purchasing new equipment, look into sharing various pieces of equipment between laboratories

• Consider energy consumption factors when making new equipment purchases.

• Buy equipment with an ENERGY STAR label

Brainstorming suggestion

• Add thermostat for aircond at lab to set to 24oC• Change lightings at lab to T8 with reflector• Maintenance of freezer and refrigerator for whole

lab every 6 months – clean filter and coil• Only switch on fume hood when need to use• Put label to closed fume hood or open partially

only• Possibility to share freezer/refrigerator and other

equipments?• Energy saving awareness labels to be put at all

labs

References

• http://www.labmanager.com/?articles.view/articleNo/3323/article/Achieving-Laboratory-Energy-Efficiency

• http://map.ais.ucla.edu/portal/site/UCLA/menuitem.789d0eb6c76e7ef0d66b02ddf848344a/?vgnextoid=bce6c31f3dd10210VgnVCM400000e4d76180RCRD

• http://www.colorado.edu/FacMan/about/conservation/FumeHoods.html

• http://www.indiana.edu/~bioweb/about/green_team/energy.shtml