Labs consume significantly more energy per square foot than the average building due to specialized equipment, such as laboratory fume hoods, -80 degrees freezers, and other research equipment. Operating labs as efficiently as possible will, thus, significantly reduce a lab’s carbon footprint and energy requirements.
Energy Star Policy
Energy Star is now UCSF policy. Explore Energy Star's purchasing guide.
Freezer and Chill Up Rebates
The Office of Sustainability provides freezer rebates to labs looking to replace old, inefficient ULT freezers with energy-efficient ones. Visit the -80 Freezer Rebates page.
Best Practices For Our -80s:
- Chill Up Your Freezer: -70C is the new -80. According to MyGreenLab, chilling up your ultra-low freezer from -80 degrees Celsius (C) to -70C has two major benefits: it can reduce energy consumption by 30% and in doing so it can prolong the life of your freezer. This means less downtime and less chance that your samples will be compromised.
- Ice acts as an insulator. When it builds up in a freezer, the system uses more energy to maintain the required temperature. Freezers should be defrosted when the ice is greater than 5 mm. Ask us for a free freezer brush!
- Defrost freezers frequently
Fume hoods
Shut Your Sash
According to MyGreenLab, a single fume hood can use as much energy as 3.5 households every day due to the large volume of air that must be moved through the hood by the ventilation system. Lowering or shutting the sash reduces the speed of the exhaust fan, thereby reducing the energy used by the fume hood ventilation system. Check out our Off the Hood program.
Best Practices For Reducing Plugload
When left plugged in, our electronic gadgets and basic appliances still use what’s called phantom or vampire energy — even when they are turned off or in sleep mode.
Turn off or unplug equipment when not in use-This one is obvious, but a friendly reminder always helps. If a piece of equipment is not being used, turn it off. Think: lights, centrifuges, shakers, computer monitors, and fume hoods.
Identify equipment that does not need to run 24/7
Use timer to turn the items off in the evening and back on in the morning.
Items such as heating blocks and mixers can easily be plugged into one power strip and programed to automatically turn off at the end of the day.
We provide free services for power strips and timer installations! Simply reach out to us at Sustainability@Ucsf.edu to request this service.