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Ashworth volunteers make changes to ultra low freezers and save energy
Researchers in Ashworth Laboratories at the King’s Buildings are set to save more than £6,000/year through simple changes - like running ultra-low freezers at -70 instead of -80 degrees C.
Fifteen Ashworth energy champions identified changes to improve energy efficiency within the two research institutes - Evolutionary Biology and the Institute of Immunology and Infection Research.
The volunteers, engaged by the University’s Sustainability Office, have been raising awareness of energy conservation among their peers. The group was motivated to carry out an ultra-low freezers experiment - testing an increase of running temperatures (from -80 to -70 degrees C).
The findings were startling - not only did the change in temperature make no difference to the storage conditions, but each freezer used 30% less power.
They have proposed further actions to reduce waste:
- avoid unnecessary running of IT equipment and lights
- replacement of old and inefficient equipment
- regular cleaning of air filters on air handling equipment
The labs acquired OWL meters to monitor the energy use of standard or multi-phase equipment so they have an accurate reporting of the efficiency progress.
The data collected over the course of the project suggests yearly savings of at least £6,000 / 55 tonnes CO2e.
This article was published on Nov 14, 2011