21 2024). The Smart Labs Toolkit presents a programmatic approach that involves key stakeholders from management to facilities staff to environmental health and safety personnel to researchers. Through a systematic four stage process – Plan, Assess, Optimize, and Manage – key facilities are assessed to identify energy conservation measures that address key contributors in energy consumption: ventilation and equipment. Establishing a Smart Labs program rather than completing a one-time efficiency improvement effort supports the dynamic process of assessing, optimizing, and managing required to maintain efficient, safe operations in such a dynamic environment as laboratories. Through discussions with the MIT Facilities and Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) staff, the current efforts towards energy efficient laboratories in development are already in alignment with many of the best practices set forth by leaders of the sustainable laboratory community. These improvement measures have just been implemented in Building 76, the leading building in energy consumption on campus, and plans exist for similar projects across the rest of campus. In this section, we propose three implementation scenarios for addressing energy efficiency and carbon savings in laboratories. Brief descriptions of the key strategies are included below, with further information on cost, risk, and innovation in the scenarios table in this section. These considerations are laboratory-specific energy conservation measures found through the detailed audit performed in Building 76 and other considerations from Smart Labs best practices. Summary of Laboratory-Specific Efficiency Strategies Optimized Airflow Based on Ventilation Risk Assessment - Reduce ventilation to flows appropriate for research-specific hazards through a Ventilation Risk Assessment (LVRA), which considers specific hazards posed by research in each space to assign tailored, appropriate ventilation rates that effectively mitigate risk of contaminant exposure to researchers. - Repair laboratory ventilation and airflow setback controls and address deferred maintenance to get system operation back to effectiveness as originally designed. - Implement demand-driven controls, allowing the right airflow to be provided in the right place at the right time. This will greatly reduce unnecessarily high energy consumption during unoccupied periods. Informed Selection and Placement of Supply Diffusers - Relocate supply diffusers and general exhaust grilles to promote ventilation effectiveness and the sweeping of contaminants away from researchers. High Performance Exposure Control - Replace constant volume fume hoods with high performance variable air volume (VAV) models when possible, to allow for flows to modulate appropriately with use. - Implement program or engineering controls to shut fume hood sashes when not in use to prevent unnecessary high flow rates when no hazards are present. Energy-Efficient Equipment - Adjust setpoints for Ultra-Low Temperature Freezers, which can save significant amounts of energy consumption without affecting stored samples. - Develop a standard of minimum efficiency requirements for new equipment procurement with researchers to reduce research equipment energy and water consumption.
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