HEALTH & SAFETY


A SUSTAINABLE SAFETY SOLUTION


Electronic airflow control and monitor manufacturer and consultant,


Temperature Electronics Ltd (TEL), creates fume cupboard products for laboratories to comply sustainably with respiratory health and


safety legislation. Director Richard Eady tells TFM how a leading UK university has delivered a sustainable solution.


At the United Nations Paris climate conference (COP21) in December 2015, 195 countries adopted the first universal, legally-binding, global climate deal. Due to enter force in 2020, the Paris Agreement set out an international action plan to put the world on track to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels.


To this end, the higher education sector set itself an ambitious goal, with the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) aiming for a reduction in carbon emissions across the sector of 43% by 2020 (against a 2005 baseline).


Perhaps because of this target, facilities managers in the higher education sector are leading the way in the development of environmentally sustainable, laboratory respiratory protection health and safety initiatives. Demonstrating to the laboratory industry as a whole that by so doing, it is possible to protect users whilst reducing energy consumption at such a rate that the cost incurred by the initial “green” investment will be quickly covered and long-term financial savings made.


Housing both the National Centre for Atmospheric Science and the Walker Institute, the University of Reading is a world leader in climate research, and as befits an institution with such prestigious environmental credentials, is one of the UK universities to have taken the greatest strides in this field, winning several national sustainability awards.


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by the £250,000 2014 pilot, which focused on the upgrade of 44 fume cupboards – amounting to 343 tonnes of CO2


and £91,683; it paid for itself in less than three years.


Part of the 2016 project saw fume cupboards upgraded from constant air volume (CAV) to variable air volume (VAV) systems across 22 laboratories in three buildings, with TEL AFA1000 VAV controllers installed by CSW Technical in 68 units.


“IT IS POSSIBLE TO


PROTECT USERS WHILST REDUCING ENERGY CONSUMPTION.”


In November, its Extracting Carbon Savings from our Science Labs project won the facilities and services category of the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC) 2016 Green Gown Awards. The project follows a successful pilot, which was shortlisted for the carbon reduction category of the 2014 Green Gown awards and won the 2014 Sustainability Leaders Awards energy efficiency category.


Commissioned in 2016, Extracting Carbon Savings from our Science Labs involved an estate-wide upgrade of science laboratory fume cupboard respiratory protection ventilation, delivered for £768,000, and generated predicted annual savings of 694 tonnes of CO2


and £223,958. These savings followed those achieved


The VAV controllers automatically adjust airflow according to need, decreasing the volume of air extracted when the fume cupboard sashes are closed, maintaining a constant face velocity and therefore minimising energy consumption. Under the CAV system, a fixed volume of air had been continuously extracted and replaced, even when cupboard sashes were closed.


The University of Reading’s Energy Manager, Dan Fernbank said: “To date, legal requirements around fume cupboards have focused on respiratory protection via the safe containment of hazardous substances. This can lead to energy wastage if solutions do not also consider how to meet their requirements efficiently.”


By February 2017, along with a host of other carbon reduction initiatives, the laboratory project had helped the university achieve its own target of reducing carbon emissions by 35%, producing a saving of £17 million over a five year period. The university has now set a new, even higher target of 45% carbon reduction by 2020/21.


www.tel-uk.com twitter.com/TomorrowsFM


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