Labs
National research on laboratories across the United States shows that a laboratory typically consumes between three and eight times the energy used by a typical commercial space per square foot. In addition, cleanrooms consume between ten and one hundred times the energy, depending on the classification (Bell, et al.2003, Mills et al 1996).
The reason for this is that laboratories are typically supplied with 100% outside air 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, at between 4 - 15 air changes per hour. This outdoor air must be heated or cooled (conditioned) to acceptable occupant levels. In the Boston climate, this amounts to very intense energy use in these spaces. Beyond the enormous heating and cooling load demanded by laboratories, they are also often host to considerable plug load related to high energy use equipment such as autoclaves, freezers etc.
Harvard, like many Universities with labs, has many different types of labs, including chemistry, biochemistry, biological, biomedical, physics, geology, and behavioral research laboratories. These laboratories are complex environments that may have hundreds or thousands of chemicals, compressed gases, biological agents, radioactive materials, fume hoods, biosafety cabinets, centrifuges, autoclaves, vacuum systems, lasers, sophisticated electrical equipment, and any number of other research items.
While there are a whole host of environmental impacts resulting from laboratories, climate change is perhaps the most critical of these.
Read further to explore the unique challenges and opportunities that laboratories present in terms of energy conservation and to read related case studies.