Freezer Efficiency: Cut Energy Use and Boost Stability
New England Biolab's sustainability program aims to improve freezer usage and maintenance to reduce energy consumption.
Script
Each of our ultra-low temperature freezers demands 25 kilowatt-hours per day, and together they account for about 6% of our total electricity use.
Three years ago, a volunteer group assigned freezer owners to keep them monitored. The program continues to evolve through inventory management and operational improvements.
We've found that annual preventive maintenance cuts energy use by about 30%, with fewer breakdowns and greater sample stability. We’re now testing whether we can save an additional 35% of the energy by turning up from -80 to -70, provided that doesn’t compromise our products stability.
We’ve developed software systems that make it easy for users to find and keep track of their samples. This inventory management maintains what we need under optimal conditions, meaning about 90% full for maximum efficiency.
We’ve already shut off 10% of our freezers; when we’re done we’ll have cut our cold storage fleet about in half and our electricity use by 4% - that’s 75 households! - with no compromise to our operations.
As a homeowner I can work to reduce my personal carbon footprint, but working for NEB allows me to save 11 households worth of electricity with this one program!
One reason it’s taken us this long to address our stored items is that after 50 years of history, there’s a lot of interesting stuff in there!
