Challenging Conventions to Improve Sustainability—Understanding What Drives Laboratory Design for Safety
J. Patrick Carpenter, Facility Performance Engineering
Alternative and innovative designs for laboratories continue to evolve rapidly because of sustainability, energy, and safety concerns. Many of the design objectives considered to be fundamental, conventional wisdom for enhanced health and safety involve approaches that seem to conflict with trends seeking increased energy effectiveness and flexibility.
Among the most conventional approaches are those that deal with:
- Room air change rates, which supposedly affect room air quality.
- Fume hood face velocities, which are known to affect hood containment.
- Minimum airflows in hoods, which are presumed essential to avoiding potentials for hood explosions and flammability.
- Room air distribution and velocities, which supposedly can have adverse affects on hood containment.
- Exhaust stack discharge velocities, which supposedly impact dispersion and re-entrainment potentials.
- Room pressurizations, which are expected to minimize contaminant migration.
- Exhaust duct velocities, which supposedly facilitate contaminant transport.
In addition, the classification of laboratory exhausts as hazardous exhaust systems and the use or avoidance of manifolding, fire dampers, fire barriers, shafts, sprinklers, and other devices have been widely debated in regards to the added value or problems that their application in laboratories can introduce.
Recent and still-evolving codes and standards are attempting to define these issues in less prescriptive and more flexible and understandable terms. This presentation will review and explain the background, misconceptions, and appropriate use of solutions to each of these issues in laboratory designs and will identify how each can be best applied to result in the most sustainable solutions.
Perhaps most importantly, the specific interactions of how building/mechanical codes, open-plan laboratory planning concepts, and all the requirements related to airflows are evolving will be addressed. This presentation will also identify how fundamental differences in laboratory types and activities can and should affect the characterization of safety concerns and identify the likely differences in design options appropriate for various laboratory applications.
Biography:
J. Patrick Carpenter, P.E., principal with Facility Performance Engineers, is a nationally recognized leader in engineering systems for laboratory, animal, and other high-tech facilities. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering and is a registered professional engineer in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He has more than 35 years of experience and has focused on high-tech projects for corporate, government, and institutional clients. He has been responsible for the conception, development, commissioning, and troubleshooting of MEP systems for numerous projects, being involved in everything from strategic planning and programming to conceptual development and documentation to start-up, operational training and troubleshooting. His holistic view balances safety, reliability, functionality, operational effectiveness, and energy conservation with flexibility and sustainability. His experience includes projects for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the University of Colorado HSC, Rutgers University, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Virginia, Brookdale Community College, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute, the U.S. Navy, Cornell University, Merck, DuPont, J&J, AstraZeneca, Wyeth–Ayerst, Aventis, Pfizer, Glaxo, Boehringer Ingelheim, Novartis, MedImmune, Exxon, ARAMCO, and Rohm & Haas. He is active in ASHRAE, AIHA, ISPE, and BCxA. His ASHRAE activity includes more than 25 years work on technical committees involving laboratories and clean spaces, industrial air conditioning, industrial ventilation, and energy calculations. He also served on SPC 100.5 Energy Conservation in Existing Buildings and SPC-110 Performance Testing of Laboratory Fume Hoods. He has presented and moderated at every Labs21 Annual Conference since its inception.