Track Utility Consumption
Laboratories are well-known energy consumers (and that’s before you plug in that first ULT freezer). Once it all begins to add, and the average lab can consume more energy than a full neighborhood, even on a slow day.
But where does all that energy go? It’s tough to say. We all know freezers are big consumers, as well as fume hoods, but what about all those other boxes quietly humming along?
According to the “Market Assessment of Energy Efficiency Opportunities in Laboratories,” the top three energy consumers in the laboratory are fume hoods, ULT freezers, and autoclaves:
I know what you’re saying, “That’s nice, but what can I do with this information?” To paraphrase Peter Drucker: You can’t control what you can’t measure, and you can’t manage what you can’t control.
If you were able to monitor energy (or water) hogs in your laboratory, you could save money on utility costs, freeing up mre money for research. Save $10,000 in a year, and that’s no different than a $10,000 grant.
Jellybean can help by identifying both actual and utility usage per item of equipment, and helping to analyze their usage –
1. How many fume hoods do you have? How many are left wide open 24×7?
2. How many ULT freezers are you running? How many are less than ½ full?
3. How many autoclaves do you have? How many are “hot & ready” 24×7?
Imagine if you were to leave your kitchen oven hot and open after you bake a tray of cookies. Silly, right? True, but many folks don’t think twice about leaving their fume hood wide open, or their autoclave hot and idle.
But that’s only the beginning… Imagine if you could map the utility usage of every item of equipment in your lab – tracking actual usage, as well as downtime. You could analyze usage patterns to manage peak loads to lower demand charges, reduce bottlenecks, inform preventative maintenance, or plan for new capital expenditures.
Jellybean Monitoring is proud to partner with EKM Metering for energy and water metering equipment. Base model energy and/or water monitoring includes EKM-OmniMeter I v.3 Universal Smart Meter, BCT-007-100 Current Transformers, and ¾” Stainless Steel Water Meter. Support for additional meters available.
Nominal Voltage Ranges:
120V to 480V, 2-wire, Single-phase, One Line & Neutral
120V to 480V, 3-wire, Single-phase, 2 Lines & Neutral
120V to 415V, 3-wire, 3-phase, 3 Lines, No Neutral
120V to 480V, 4-wire, 3-phase, 3 Lines and Neutral
Rated Frequency: 50 Hz / 60 Hz Received California Type Approval for revenue grade metering.