Motion and Sash Height (MASH) alarms for efficient fume hood use

Ventilation, including fume hoods, consumes 40–70% of the total energy used by modern laboratories. Energy-conscious fume hood usage—for example, closing the sash when a hood is unused—can significantly reduce energy expenditures due to ventilation. Prior approaches to promote such behaviors among l...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2021-11, Vol.11 (1), p.21412-21412, Article 21412
Main Authors: Kongoletos, Johnathan, Munden, Ethan, Ballew, Jennifer, Preston, Daniel J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
704/844/1759
704/844/4066
704/844/685
Building management systems
Emissions
Feedback
Heat recovery systems
Humanities and Social Sciences
multidisciplinary
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Ventilation
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Ventilation, including fume hoods, consumes 40–70% of the total energy used by modern laboratories. Energy-conscious fume hood usage—for example, closing the sash when a hood is unused—can significantly reduce energy expenditures due to ventilation. Prior approaches to promote such behaviors among lab users have primarily relied on passive feedback methods. In this work, we developed a low-cost fume hood monitoring device with active feedback to alert lab users when a fume hood is left open and unused. Using data collected by the building management system, we observed a 75.6% decrease in the average sash height after installation of these “Motion and Sash Height” (MASH) alarms, which would result in a reduction roughly equal to 43% of the annual carbon emissions of a typical American vehicle, for each fume hood. The MASH alarm presented here reduced energy costs by approximately $1,159 per year, per hood, at MIT.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-021-00772-y