Motion and Sash Height (MASH) alarms for efficient fume hood use

Date
2021
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Springer Nature
Abstract

Ventilation, including fume hoods, consumes 40–70% of the total energy used by modern laboratories. Energy-conscious fume hood usage—for example, closing the sash when a hood is unused—can significantly reduce energy expenditures due to ventilation. Prior approaches to promote such behaviors among lab users have primarily relied on passive feedback methods. In this work, we developed a low-cost fume hood monitoring device with active feedback to alert lab users when a fume hood is left open and unused. Using data collected by the building management system, we observed a 75.6% decrease in the average sash height after installation of these “Motion and Sash Height” (MASH) alarms, which would result in a reduction roughly equal to 43% of the annual carbon emissions of a typical American vehicle, for each fume hood. The MASH alarm presented here reduced energy costs by approximately $1,159 per year, per hood, at MIT.

Description
Advisor
Degree
Type
Journal article
Keywords
Citation

Kongoletos, Johnathan, Munden, Ethan, Ballew, Jennifer, et al.. "Motion and Sash Height (MASH) alarms for efficient fume hood use." Scientific Reports, 11, (2021) Springer Nature: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-00772-y.

Has part(s)
Forms part of
Rights
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
Citable link to this page