I2SL's Newsletter - Sustainable Laboratory Times
February 2009
This Issue's Question*:
"What components or systems have you, or will you, use to sub-meter your laboratory? Components may include the following:
- HVAC—Individual components or the system itself (gas and electric)?
- Expensive demands—Major pieces of equipment,
from walk-in freezers to MRI units. - Plug Loads—Individual circuits (i.e., lighting or lab module) to bench-top units (i.e., clustered GC/MS or shaker tables).
- Everything—until you find out what you don't need to meter."
Note: Responses from the community are not representative of endorsement by I2SL for any of the solutions offered, and are entirely the opinion of the individual.
This Issue's Answers:
"Currently our plan is to start big (utility level metering) and let the individual facilities determine what they want for sub-metering. Two good examples are the Research Triangle Park (RTP) and the Andrew W. Breidenbach Environmental Research Center (AWBERC) facilities. EPA Headquarters provided the utility level metering, and they are adding additional sub-metering initiatives, for example:
RTP has completely sub-metered their high-bay lab where process-only experiments are done. This includes a heavy duty (1000 hp) truck dynamometer. They are completing a complete sub-metering separation of the data center, i.e. separating out the office from the computer floor (with additional metering to separate out the computer room HVAC from the computing equipment) so we can analyze the actual impacts of computing loads vs. HVAC. Finally, they are starting on the main building - the first phase is to sub-meter the larger building into its five main sub-buildings. Once that is complete, we will separate out the office portions from the lab portions, then the lab portions will be divided by floor and program, and so on.
AWBERC is also adding numerous sub-meters, not only for the various building wings, but for most of the major equipment in the central plan. Future plans may include separation of the floor and programs."
Dan Amon
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
"There are a half dozen very competitive advanced metering solutions.
Each federal agency has gone in a slightly different direction. You can break the solution into three components. First the meters, then the local data transmission component, then the central data gathering system or service. Siemens offers several options for an end-to-end solution or any combination of these three components."
Fred Brunk
Siemens Building Technologies, Inc.
*If you would like to provide an answer to this question, please e-mail I2SL. Please remember that your name and affiliation will be published unless you request otherwise.