Cold Storage Challenges and Good Practice at UoEdinburgh Martin Farley – Laboratories Facilitator, SRS department

Background Position created through combination of: Currently ‘Laboratories Facilitator’ under SRS department, very needed

UoEdinburgh – Labs facilitator Run Edinburgh Sustainability Lab Awards Act as a resource for lab-sustainability issues Scope, identify, (ideally) improve problematic areas

Issue at hand How many freezers are there? How much do they consume? How much energy do they cost? No UoE wide SOP

~355 at UoE, ID’d locations and estates costs Made cost approximation (conservative estimate of 12.5 kWhr/day/freezer) Running of our 355 freezers - ~270,000GBP (raise avg running to 13.5kWhr, rises to 280,000, 15kWhr rises it to 300,000) Conducted energy study at varying temperatures

Running Temperature

In Progress.. Roslin institute has excellent SOP, – Needs standardisation across UoE Exit Policies – Huge potential Inductions for good practice

-40C -> -20C Wellcome Trust Clinic and Genetics Centre are merging freezer rooms Looking at replacing -40Cs with -20Cs Primarily DNA storage Ideally would allow consolidation of fridges

Freezer Farm – Cooling the rooms In initial stages – want to replicate Roslin’s cooling techniques – Looking at recapturing heat if possible Utilise cool Scottish air to cool Cs as well as -150C room. Fans are only triggered at two temperatures

Long-Term Cold Storage Study 3 stage, 3 freezer project – 1. Short-term studies (response times with power cuts, energy loss with door openings, UoE) – 2. 5 year study. Look at energy consumption/internal temps/sample viability at - 80C, -70C, -60C. (VWR) – 3. UoE continuation of project.

Final remarks... Multi-pronged approach Huge (and growing) potential Long-term study to help push larger scientific community – Your input is welcome! – Contact for survey

Contact Martin Farley: laboratories laboratories S-Lab mailing list: