The microscope is at risk of substantial and expensive damage if the lamp shatters resulting in down-time which interrupts the scientific work being done. The lamp life is short, which is compounded by the fact that warm up times are long (eating into that limited lamp life). Consequently lab users/ managers in imaging suites with mercury light source microscopes spend a lot of time and money replacing lamps. In addition, the discarded lamps must be disposed of as costly hazardous waste.

Growth cabinets are used to create specific conditions for biological experiments. A number of factors are regulated including humidity, light intensity, light hours, temperature, concentrations of various gases, etc. Often the light units in growth cabinets will be on for long hours in order to simulate certain growing conditions. With most growth cabinets using relatively inefficient fluorescent lamps this leads to substantial energy consumption.

As with growth cabinets, incubator shaker incorporate lights in order to recreate appropriate environmental conditions for growing certain organisms. Currently these lights are almost exclusively relatively inefficient fluorescent lamps. With long hours of operation this leads to significant lighting energy consumption. Keep centrifuge rotors refrigerated separately so they are ready immediately without having to keep the whole centrifuge refrigeration system operating.

As with growth cabinets, incubator shakers incorporate lights in order to recreate appropriate environmental conditions for growing certain organisms. Currently these lights are almost exclusively relatively inefficient fluorescent lamps. With long hours of operation this leads to significant lighting energy consumption. Timer plugs can be fitted to many items of plugin, single-phase electricity equipment in order to realise substantial savings. 7-day timers can be used to programme different operational hours during weekdays and weekends. Many ovens, gas chromatographs and centrifuges reach their temperature.

The varied nature of the lab activities taking place across the University of Edinburgh make an exhaustive list of equipment impractical. In general you should focus on items of equipment which have heating or cooling functions. Some of the larger energy users are detailed on the next page1 , but given how cheap and easy to use the plug-in timers are, there are likely to be many items of equipment which could achieve reasonable savings through a timer.

These models introduce hazards to the lab environment as the lamps heat up considerably, and there is the risk of mercury entering the lab environment if the lamp shatters. The microscope is at risk of substantial and expensive damage if the lamp shatters – resulting in down-time which interrupts the scientific work being done. The lamp life is short, which is compounded by the fact that warm up times are long (eating into that limited lamp life). Consequently lab users/ managers in imaging suites with mercury light source microscopes spend a lot of time and money replacing lamps. In addition, the discarded lamps must be disposed of as costly hazardous waste.