20 Energy Efficient Labs Amanda Kirkeby Technology Overview Laboratories play a vital role on every research campus, providing a space for researchers to work towards solutions for some of the world’s most challenging issues. At MIT, with a global reputation for challenging the status quo, defying limits of technology, and pushing the very boundaries of human knowledge, cutting-edge research occurs every day in the 180,000 square meters of laboratory space on campus. Especially in laboratories where the research is environmentally sensitive or potentially hazardous to human health, the building systems in laboratories are the primary protection mechanism in mitigating risk to the most important asset of the MIT campus: its world class researchers. With the crucial role building systems serve in laboratories, labs have an energy use intensity much higher than other academic, ancillary, or residential space. In a MIT campus modeling effort, Nagpal et al. estimated that special use laboratory spaces have an energy use intensity 10 times that of office spaces (Nagpal, Hanson, and Reinhart 2019). Main drivers of this significant amount of energy use are ventilation and equipment. With air being the primary defense from research-based contaminants, ventilation-driven loads typically account for upwards of 65% of total laboratory energy use (Kirkeby 2022). Research equipment loads can account for 20% of total energy use (Kirkeby 2022). As a result, laboratory-dominated buildings are the leading contributors to campus energy consumption, making energy efficiency improvements in laboratories a key component in decarbonization efforts. However, due to the “mission-critical” nature of lab operations, it is vital that all strategies proposed must: - Prioritize safety of researchers and the broader MIT community, - minimize disruption to research and - provide ongoing carbon savings through a programmatic approach. While no small undertaking, there are ample strategies for optimizing the safety and efficiency of research laboratories. For the past 20 years, efforts by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories (I2SL), and leading research institutions have been developing strategies to improve both the energy efficiency and the effectiveness of laboratory building systems to provide a safe working environment for researchers. A leader in this field, the University of California – Irvine (UCI) Smart Labs™ program was recognized by the DOE and NREL as the flagship program for Smart Labs, showing it is possible to successfully address the significant undertaking of efficient laboratories in high-profile research institutions (NREL and I2SL 2024). This spurred the Better Building Smart Labs Accelerator, hosted by DOE FEMP and researchers at NREL in 2016. The Smart Labs Accelerator challenged 17 U.S. research laboratories to reduce energy use by 20% (U.S. DOE Better Buildings 2020). With the success of the Smart Labs Accelerator, the Smart Labs Toolkit was developed by NREL to facilitate decarbonization efforts by research institutions across the globe, curating lessons learned by accelerator participants and best practices from leaders in laboratory sustainability, including I2SL, 3Flow, and My Green Lab (NREL and I2SL
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