Recycling 1 ton of paper saves 17 trees, 7000 gallons of water, 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space, 2 barrels of oil, enough energy to power a house for 6 months.
Top energy consuming-equipment are:
Electrician using a digital meter.
- Fume hoods and Biosafety Cabinets (and other equipment with large fan components)
- Freezers, autoclaves, drying ovens, incubators, water baths, heating blocks (and other equipment with heating or cooling elements).
- Vacuum pumps (and other equipment that pull vacuum)
According to a study from the EPA and DOE, the direct cost of electricity for an individual -80C freezer could be between $500 and $1500 per year.
Fume hoods consume 3.5 times more energy than the average house. ULT freezers consume the equivalent of the average house.
Plug load makes up about 20% of energy consumption in a lab. For U.S. labs, reducing plug load by just 10% would be equivalent to removing approximately 650,000 cars from the road. (Source: My Green Lab)