Submitted by Grainne Kennedy on Tue, 2017-07-25 16:07
Extracting air safely from the Chemistry department’s 322 fume cupboards takes a lot of power and involves 37 fan systems that have been installed at various times over the building's lifetime. Until recently, the building’s fume exhaust system operated at a constant power consumption to meet the criteria for a worst case wind condition. Although operating in this way prevented fume exposure, it also used a vast amount of energy.
In a bid to improve this situation, the University decided to install a variable air volume extract system (wind tunnel model pictured) in March of this year. This system allows for the rate of air extraction to respond to external wind velocity; so, on days when wind conditions are favourable, the fans will automatically operate at a lower volume rate allowing for a reduction in energy consumption, while still meeting the building’s health and safety requirements.
The cost of the project, which was part funded by ECRP, has an expected payback of just over five years and Chemistry will be able to reduce its total energy consumption by 10%! The impact of the project is illustrated in figure 1 below, which also indicates when previous ECRP-funded projects were implemented in the Chemistry building.
Figure 1: Department of Chemistry electricity use
This project is a good example of how a detailed analysis of existing systems and systems thinking in relation to equipment can result in substantial reductions in energy consumption while maintaining the standards required.
If you would like to examine the energy use in your department/building or you have an idea for an energy efficiency project that could be funded by ECRP, please get in touch.