Lab equipment guide

What can you do?

• Switch off equipment where possible and safe, particularly at weekends and overnight.
• You can use automatic functions or fit simple plug-in timers in case of regular hours of use.
• Use an energy meter to monitor how much electricity your equipment uses.
• Share equipment and consider what’s available on the equipment sharing database or on WARPit before buying something new.
• If you need to purchase new equipment, include energy efficiency in your selection criteria.
• Recycle surplus equipment through WARPit (reuse internally), or the UniGreenScheme (external asset resale service).

Resources available

• Funding for energy-efficient equipment replacements
• Assistance for departments considering the environmental, social and economic impacts of purchases
• Colour-coded ‘Switch off’ stickers to help you distinguish what can and can’t be switched off
• You can borrow energy meters from the Environmental Sustainability team to monitor how much energy your equipment uses - email us to find out more
• We can give you access to your building’s energy consumption data – email us to request your log-in details
• Go paper-free with electronic lab notebooks (ELN)

Did you know?

• A typical new ultra-low temperature (ULT) freezer will consume as much energy in a year as the average UK household; older models up to four times that. 
• A freezer runs about 10% more efficiently after a full defrost. 

What can you do?

• Label samples, including expiry date, and regularly clear out old ones. 
• Keep fridges and freezers clean and organised to ensure they keep your samples safe for years to come. 
• Keep door openings as short as possible – warm moist air entering the freezer will build up as frost, reducing freezer performance and sample safety.
• Report any issues like heavy icing, broken seals or dirty filters to the freezer manager.

Resources

• Best practice video
• Best practice presentation slides - email us
• Best practice stickers
• Funding for energy-efficient ULT freezers

Did you know?

• Fume cupboards are among the most energy-hungry types of equipment – an average unit consumes as much as 3.5 average UK households.
• Shutting a fume cupboard sash reduces its air flow, energy consumption and carbon emissions by up to 40%!

What can you do?

• Always close your fume cupboard sash when you leave the room.
• Keep items in the fume hood at least 10cm apart and remove unnecessary items – it’s not safe otherwise!
• Don’t use fume cupboards for storage – use ventilated cabinets instead, which only use ~1% of the energy of a fume cupboard.

Resources

• 'Shut the sash' stickers
• Funding to upgrade your fume cupboard