Study on Fume Hood Improvements for Energy Savings and Minimum Face Velocity

Abstract

A fume hood is a device that safely exhausts harmful substances generated during the experimental process to the outside, and for the safety of researchers and the protection of experimental samples, the balance between the amount of air flowing in and the speed at which it is discharged to the outside is extremely important. The Face velocity of the fume hood is recommended to be 0.5m/s (ASHRAE 110-2016) specified by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The Korea Occupational Safety and Health Corporation specifies 0.4 m/s (KOSHA-G-7-1999). To increase the functionality of the fume hood, it must be operated 24 hours a day while maintaining the prescribed Face velocity to make a safe laboratory environment. However, constantly powering them consumes a significant amount of electrical energy. Therefore, it's crucial to make efforts to reduce energy consumption. Some labs have adopted a method to minimize electrical usage by powering the hoods only when they're in use. In that case, it should be done with great caution. Because hazardous substances inside the hood could be leaked, putting the entire lab at risk. By implementing such measures, organizations and institutions managing lab facilities can effectively reduce energy consumption while ensuring the use of safe fume hoods. Additionally, there's a growing trend in research facilities to maintain Face velocity of fume hoods below 0.25 m/s as part of efforts to decrease and conserve electrical energy. This study stems from preliminary research aimed at achieving a stable face velocity in fume hoods. In this study, to reduce the face velocity of the fume hood, we changed the structural design of the fume hood based on existing research. As a result, the face velocity of the fume hood is reduced from 0.5 m/s to 0.297 m/s. the study reduced the face velocity to a maximum of 0.297m/s. To verify the performance of the fume hood with minimum face velocity, we tested the ventilation performance with the international standard test method. It proves that the fume hood with face velocity 0.297 m/s make no differences compared to existing fume hood with higher face velocity. In addition, the fume hood with minimum face velocity enables the reduction of energy consumption.