3 Ways To Save Money And Energy In A Lab

17 January 2015 by Marvin Carroll

Overseeing a laboratory is like overseeing any other type of business; you need to provide your workers with the equipment they need to do their jobs properly, but you also need to be concerned with how you're spending the money used to run your lab. There are certain things that can be done in a lab of any sort in order to save energy and to save money without compromising the quality of the work that goes on inside. Consider a few suggestions.

1. Defrost the freezer

The freezer is often the most energy-intensive piece of equipment in a lab, and just as with your freezer in your kitchen at home, if it's covered in frost then it's working too hard. The frost covers the sides of the freezer so that it needs to work harder to maintain a cooler temperature. Frost building up on your specimens and supplies also means that you're keeping your freezer too cold and are allowing this excess moisture to build.

If you have frost built up inside your freezer, be sure you transfer specimens to another location and then clean it out thoroughly. Ensure the gaskets are all properly sealing the interior while you're cleaning the inside. This will keep it running much more efficiently.

2. Close fume sashes

It's good to close the sashes of unused fume hoods as these use a tremendous amount of energy to pull fumes out of the lab. The fume hood also pulls air into the room in order to recycle and circulate it, creating fresh air for the lab. If you have any fume hoods which are not in use, close the sash and keep it closed until the hood is going to be used.

3. Turn off the tap

Most labs have a tap that provides deionized water, which is cleaner and which can be used for testing. However, this water isn't like the water you get out of your faucets and taps at home. It requires more energy to create deionized water than it does to run water through a standard filtration plant, so the more of it that you use, the more energy you're using. In turn, the higher your utility costs and the more pollution you're creating.

Many labs like those of Mountview Business Park prefer to have multiple batch rinses so they can turn on the tap once and then turn it off after use. This will save you money on water and electricity and also cut down on the pollution generated when water is deionized.

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