Did You Know?

Laboratory cold storage can be downright surprising. Did you know:

• Vacuum or gently brush dust off your freezer coils for approximately 10% energy savings. Plus, this is an action item on the Freezer Challenge scoresheet!
• Freezers need room to breathe! Don't store boxes or other equipment on top of your freezer, and leave space for airflow behind as well, particularly around intake and exhaust grills.
• Placement of refrigerators and freezers is critical too. This equipment rejects heat, and must be situated in a room that can handle the constant heat rejection. Hallways or storage rooms that weren't designed for large-load equipment often do not have the HVAC necessary to handle this heat. Does your equipment room feel warmer than other spaces in your building? Your freezer might be working harder to maintain temperature in that environment.
• Refrigerators and -20 ºC freezers consume roughly 1-3 kWh/day. But most ultra-low temperature (ULT) freezers, on average, consume 15-22 kWh/day unless you buy one that is Energy Star rated. Amazingly though, some ULT freezers have been found to be consuming 30-35 kWh/day! That's more energy than a single-family home in the U.S consumes each day.

​You are a part of a worldwide community of scientists working to make cold storage more efficient and less energy intensive. As of today, over 85 organizations are participating in this year's International Laboratory Freezer Challenge, representing over 200 labs! This is a 112% increase in the number of organizations that were engaged in the Challenge in 2019!! Keep up the amazing work as we move into the last 6 weeks of the 2020 Freezer Challenge.

Reminder: The deadline for this year's Freezer Challenge is now August 1, 2020.