Green Labs Energy
ENERGY
Common lab equipment and energy saving techniques
Turn off equipment
Turn off computers, lab equipment, and small appliances when not in use to conserve energy. Reminder stickers can be useful for getting in the habit of shutting down equipment when not in use.
Freezer Management
Freezers are often the biggest users of electricity in the lab. According to Lab Manager magazine, a single ultra-low temperature freezer draws as much energy as an average domestic household. Follow these tips to minimize energy consumption and to keep your cold storage units running their best:
- Annually defrost your freezer
- Regularly de-ice and clean the door seal to improve contact on sealing surfaces
- Consolidate samples and reagents into a single fridge/freezer to reduce the number of fridges and freezers required - or share with neighboring labs
- Be sure to turn off/unplug units, not in use
- Implement a freezer inventory system to minimize door openings and the time spent searching for samples.
- Consider setting your ultra-low freezer temperature at -70 C instead of -80 C. Chilling up your ultra-low temperature (ULT) freezer from -80C to -70C has two major benefits: it can reduce energy consumption by 30-40%, and in doing so it can prolong the life of your freezer. This means less downtime and less chance that your samples will be compromised.
- Fill empty freezer shelf space with styrofoam coolers to help maintain temperature while freezer doors are open.
Evidence that -70C is a safe temperature to store samples
About storying DNA at -20C
Has anyone else tried this?
YES. Colorado University-Boulder, University of California-Davis, University of California-Santa Barbara, Harvard University and Dartmouth University, were among the first in the United States to adjust their ULT freezer set points. Now, thanks to the great work of Freezer Challenge participants, labs in universities and companies around the world have chilled up. AstraZeneca, Charles River Labs, Genentech, the CDC, Imperial College London, and NUI Galway are just a few of the hundreds of places where at least some, if not all, ULT freezers are now set to -70C. Some labs have offered to include their information on a list of samples successfully stored at -70C. That list can be found here.
Shut the Sash
Fume hoods are one of the most energy intensive types of equipment in a laboratory environment, but significant savings can be achieved by keeping them closed when not in use.
Biosafety Cabinets
Turn off biosafety cabinets when not in use. A single BSC can consume 15 kWh/day - about half as much as a house!
Laboratory equipment selection
Choose Energy Star certified equipment when available.