Major energy efficiency opportunities in laboratories—Implications for health and safety

Laboratory facilities present a unique challenge for energy efficient design, partly due to their health and safety requirements. Recent experience has shown that there is significant energy efficiency potential in laboratory buildings. However, there is often a misperception in the laboratory community that energy efficiency will inherently compromise safety. In some cases, energy efficiency measures require special provisions to ensure that safety requirements are met. In other cases, efficiency measures actually improve safety. In this paper we present five major, yet under-utilized, energy efficiency strategies for ventilation-intensive laboratories and discuss their implications for health and safety. These include: (a) optimizing ventilation rates; (b) reducing laboratory chemical hood energy use; (c) low-pressure drop HVAC design; (d) right-sizing HVAC systems; and (e) reducing simultaneous heating and cooling. In all cases, the successful design and implementation of these strategies requires active and informed participation by health and safety personnel.