The need to save energy and reduce budgets is a pressing issue for all facility and lab managers. In most labs, the quality of the environment is critical for people, lab animals and the experiments being carried out. Because of this, energy efficiency has been low on the priority list and there has been a conservative tendency on the part of designers to re-use proven designs regardless of their efficiency.
Many labs are old, have outdated equipment and are regarded as difficult to refit. In addition, considering that labs are frequently only partially occupied, they are often ‘over-designed’ (over-powered for their size) and utilities usage is rarely measured in a meaningful way.
These and more issues were addressed at the Effective Laboratory conference, organised by the not-for-profit organisation Safe-Lab and held at the University of Liverpool, UK, in June. The speakers revealed how, rather than stick with the status quo, good facility managers are addressing energy consumption and there are many quick wins to be had from low capital expenditure.
HVAC is the most important element of energy consumption and focusing the effort here gets the fastest and most impressive results. Air change rates (ACRs) in particular have a massive effect on energy consumption, and their relationship follows a non-linear curve – i.e. doubling the amount of air pushed through the system actually cubes the amount of energy consumed.
Frequent air changes are used to ensure safe air quality, remove contaminants and to adjust temperature and humidity. Many engineers in the industry believe the current ACRs are set too high and can be reduced. Quality control and safety managers, however, are hard to convince, as they have to face the regulators, who are sensitive to change.
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