New Innovative Ways For Cooling Laboratories While Saving Water, Energy, and Costs
Gerald Williams, P.E., LEED AP®, Cannon Design
Chemistry laboratories require constant cooling and have traditionally handled this requirement through the steady flow of cold tap water from one faucet to the object, requiring cooling via simple rubber tubing. This method wastes a massive amount of potable fresh water. Experiments that draw one gallon of water every two minutes will consume 720 gallons of water over the course of a day or 262,800 gallons each year. When you consider the number of experiments conducted in laboratories worldwide, the staggering reality of the water consumption issue becomes clear.
Several new technologies and methods have begun to help laboratories deal with this challenge while saving energy, water, and costs. These technologies are already in place at well-known university, government, and corporate laboratories. This presentation will walk through the various different methods and the evolution of different strategies for tackling this problem.
One of the key changes in the way laboratories are approaching this solution is that they're using new technologies that tie into existing cold water systems in buildings. This allows for more efficient cooling and safer laboratories.
The presentation will also touch upon the success that the Linde + Robinson Institute for Environmental Research at the California Technical Institute (Caltech) has seen with these new strategies. A recent third-party study revealed the implementation of new energy-saving tools and strategies has reduced the laboratory's energy use by 87 percent.
Gerald Williams is an accomplished mechanical engineer with an extensive background in mechanical systems design. Mr. Williams leads Cannon Design's Products Design Group and is the lead inventor for the patent-pending eVap 1000. Throughout his 20-year career, Mr. Williams has consistently delivered innovative and sustainable solutions for laboratory, institutional, academic, and commercial environments. He was one of the first 1,000 professionals nationwide to earn LEED® national accreditation. Both Mr. Williams and his work have been honored with a wide range of awards, including Consulting-Specifying Engineer's 40 Under 40 Engineer of the Year honor and more than 10 local, regional, and national ASHRAE Technology Awards.