The ventilation system is the lifeblood of any laboratory building. It can also be extremely energy-intensive if not properly designed and operated. This is why implementing energy-efficient ventilation strategies has become a key part of the Labs2Zero program. This workshop will focus on the ventilation strategies that will be featured in the forthcoming Labs2Zero Actionable Insights and Measures (AIM) Reports that will be produced for users of I2SL’s Laboratory Benchmarking Tool. The instructors for this course will be Tom Smith of 3Flow and Brad Cochran of CPP Wind Engineering Consultants.

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The workshop will lead off with an introduction to the Smart Labs program at the University of California Irvine (UCI), presented by Wendell Brase, Associate Chancellor at UCI. Under Wendell’s leadership, this program was the impetus for the Federal Energy Management Program’s Smart Labs Toolkit and has informed many of the measures in the upcoming AIM Report tool.

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The ventilation system is critical to maintaining a safe and healthy work environment and can be comprised of numerous interacting components, from exposure control devices such as fume hoods to airflow controls, exhaust fans and stacks. The exhaust system alone can be 30 percent of a laboratory’s total energy consumption. Proper selection, design, and operation of the lab exhaust system from hood to stack is critical to occupant safety, energy efficiency, and sustainability. Minimizing the lab’s building’s carbon footprint or decarbonizing labs is impossible without addressing the lab exhaust system.

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Proper design of lab exhaust systems requires understanding the occupant’s demand for ventilation, selecting appropriate exposure control devices, determining minimum require airflow specifications, controlling airflow, and properly transporting and discharging potentially dangerous exhaust from the system. If the exhaust system is not properly designed, occupant safety can be jeopardized through increased exposure to airborne hazards not properly captured and removed from the building. Improper design and operation of the exhaust system can also result in adverse re-entrainment of the contaminated exhaust back into the laboratory or neighboring building. Proper exhaust is critical to providing safe and healthy environments for people working in, on, or around a lab building. On the other hand, lab exhaust systems that are over-designed can lead to high capital costs and excessive ongoing energy consumption and maintenance burden.

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This workshop will offer new advancements in designing safe and energy-efficient laboratory exhaust systems, including:

• Evaluation of lab ventilation risk and occupant demand for ventilation; 

• Selection and specifications for various types of common exposure control devices;

• Establishing appropriate airflow specifications for air change rates, contaminant transport, and exhaust discharge;

• Best practice design guidelines for exhaust stack and air intake placement;

• Defining the appropriate exhaust stack design and sizing to optimize energy consumption;

• Determining the best dispersion model for predicting concentrations at the nearby air intake to be used for specific applications; and

• Implementing control strategies that can be used, in part or in whole, during the design of a new laboratory or the renovation of an existing laboratory.

 

The workshop will include examples of case studies that demonstrate how these design and operational strategies should be implemented. Special attention will be paid to requirements in the existing ASSP Z9.5 Standard on Laboratory Ventilation.

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Upon completion of this workshop, attendees should:

• Be familiar with lab ventilation risk and methods to establish appropriate airflow specifications.

• Understand different types of exposure control devices and airflow control systems.

• Evaluate the best airflow control and exhaust strategy for their application.

• Be familiar with plume dispersion principles, which will aid in understanding the optimum placement of exhaust fans and air intakes to minimize fan energy requirements.

• Select the appropriate method for evaluating the air quality versus fan energy savings.

• Identify which exhaust systems can provide the most energy savings and the best return on investment.