Student Takes on Energy Vampires in UC San Diego Labs

Written by Qianni Huang

U.S. buildings contribute so much to climate change - they consume 71% of the nation’s electricity and 54% of its natural gas, and emit 49% of its greenhouse gases. As a leader in climate action, UC San Diego (UCSD) is committed to the design and construction of a sustainable built environment. As of July 2019, the campus has completed 38 Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified buildings and renovations. However, labs take up only 25% of UCSD’s total square footage but use about 60% of its energy! Fume hoods are a major energy user in labs because they interact with the HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) system. Thus they have a high potential impact on overall building energy consumption when they are not in use but are still left open by lab members. This problem has driven Quiana Stodder’s work on enhancing fume hood efficiency in UCSD labs.

Photo source: UC Office of the President website

Quiana is a fourth-year UCSD undergraduate student studying Mechanical Engineering and serves as a Carbon Neutrality Initiative Research Fellow. She works with the Campus Utilities Department and Green Labs Committee to build and implement fume hood sash alarms. This alarm system, developed at the Green Labs Program at MIT, is called Motion and Sash Height alarm (MASH). MASH detects when the fume hood is in use and when the fume hood sash is open. If the fume hood is left open for about 5 minutes, it will beep and remind the users to turn off  the fume hood sash. “It is a great solution because it is so simple,” Quiana commented.

Quiana has tested MASH devices on three Green Labs in Fall quarter and received amazing results. In the trial run, one of the labs showed an average of 86% decrease in fume hood sash heights, which is equivalent to saving $600 on electricity costs annually. The decrease from the second lab indicated an annual saving of $90 which demonstrated mild improvement. Lastly, the third lab indicated an annual saving of $0 which demonstrated that the lab is already doing a great job at closing the fume hood sash when not in use.

Image provided by Quiana Stodder.

Having such successful feedback from pilot projects, Quiana and her Shut the Sash Team hope to encourage behavior changes on all fume hoods across campus once the school reopens. They plan to periodically check all fume hoods and send monthly reports that enlist suggestions to labs with the worst fume hood habits. If bad habits continue, MASH devices will be installed as a motivator to close fume hoods sashes that are not in active use.

Image provided by Quiana Stodder.

MASH devices save the campus a lot of energy and money and only cost $15 per unit. However, due to a lack of funding and staff capacity, it is difficult to implement MASH for all 1000+ labs with fume hoods on campus. Therefore, Quiana will focus on a few labs every time period and rotate the devices to other labs, which will give her a better idea of how MASH changes lab members’ habits. As Quiana’s project builds great momentum, MASH proves to be a game-changing technology that effectively encourages UCSD students, staff, and faculty to conserve energy by closing unused fume hood sashes.