PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT — October 2017
52
By Markus Schaufele
Director of Standards, Compliance and Emergency Plan-
ning, Office of Research Safety
Northwestern University
Introduction
Northwestern University (NU) has 15 science research
buildings on two campuses. The Feinberg Medical School
research buildings are located on the Chicago campus.
The McCormick School of Engineering and the Weinberg
School of Arts and Sciences research buildings are located
on the Evanston Campus.
In 2017, approximately 5,000 NU researchers were reg-
istered to do wet bench research in NU laboratories and
a large number of undergraduate students rotated through
the undergraduate teaching labs on the Evanston campus.
The sponsored research funding level was at $650 Mil
1
.
In 2016, the lab research buildings 1801 Maple, Catal-
ysis, Cook, Ford, Frances Searle, Hogan, Pancoe, Ryan,
Silverman, Tech, Ward, Morton, Lurie, Searle and Tarry
consumed almost 118 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of elec-
tricity
2
, which at a cost of $0.08/kWh amounts close to $10
million. These laboratory buildings consume more than half
of the total Northwestern University electricity demand. The
electrical power needs of the laboratory building ventilation
systems make up a large part of this electricity demand
3
.
Ventilation in the science laboratories and vivarium
4
serves four main objectives: safe breathing air for occu-
pants, suitable temperature and humidity for research ac-
tivities, dilution and transport of equipment heat loads, and
spot exhaust for vented enclosures such as cage racks for
animals, and fume hoods or snorkels for chemistry. By ar-
1. https://sites.northwestern.edu/orcomm/files/2016/05/IR2016_
layout-v2xagw.pdf
2. Data provided by Sustain@NU
3. http://www.northwestern.edu/sustainability/news/2013/
feinberg-checkup.html
4. http://www.aircuity.com/technology/optinet-applications/vivarium-
demand-control-ventilation/
chitectural and building codes, laboratory rooms and vivari-
um are provided only with fresh outside air for ventilation. A
ventilation system designed for an office building may recir-
culate most of its air and only supply a small percentage of
fresh air. This design difference explains why laboratories
require so much more energy to operate. A large amount
of energy is required to supply, heat, cool, condition, fil-
ter, distribute and exhaust this air in laboratory buildings.
The traditional laboratory design approach is to proactively
ventilate all the time in anticipation of a chemical spill or re-
lease. This approach means exhausting the entire internal
air volume of a typical laboratory into the atmosphere every
10 minutes. The Northwestern University traditionally pre-
scribed air exchange rate for laboratories is 6.2 per hour.
The currently designed air exchange rate for vivarium is 15
per hour
5
. Spill incidents or unsafe releases are relatively
rare, which means that 99% of the time laboratories are
5. https://www.alnmag.com/article/2008/10/dynamic-variation-
laboratory-air-change-rates
Aircuity controlled laboratory ventilation
rates at Northwestern University
