Great news! Seattle City Light is now going to rebate $600 to labs that purchase Stirling ULT (ultra-low temperature) freezers.
The Stirling ULT freezers are very energy efficient. The University of Washington Facilities Services conducted an analysis between the Stirling freezer and another brand freezer. The graph from the research shows that the Stirling freezer uses up to 6 times less energy than the standard ULT freezers. The only time we see a peak in energy consumption compared to the standard freezer is when the door opens. The analysis showed using the Stirling freezer could save $208 in electricity cost each year. Labs could also conserve more energy if they turn up the temperature from -80°C to -70°C. On our green labs resources page we have provided a list of sample types that can be stored at -70°C.
There are several labs on campus that use Stirling ULT freezers. The Burke Museum, Department of Pharmacy, Department of Medicine, and Department of Pathology currently use the freezer. One of the research teams from the Department of Pharmacy gave the freezer good marks: "I like that it’s easy to open and operate overall. The interface on the machine is user friendly."
The Genetic Resources Collection from the Burke Museum also had good things to say (you can see a photo of some of their units at the top of the post).
The Burke Museum's Genetic Resources Collection recently replaced its aging freezer bank with 5 new units from Stirling Ultracold. The Stirling Freezers use a new refrigerant technology that makes use of a Stirling piston engine, resulting in freezers that are about 75% more energy efficient than our older models - greatly reducing heat output and noise in our small working space. They are also more space efficient and ergonomically well-designed, leading to rave reviews from our students and staff who work in the freezers, curating the collection and processing loans. We have high hopes for reliability, as the engines also have longer warranties than traditional freezer technologies."
For more information on the UW's rebate program, contact Claudia Christensen at claudiac@uw.edu.
If your lab is interested in purchasing, the contact information is:
Tim Kehrli
Business Development and Marketing Manager
Stirling UltraCold
Ph: 425-505-1188
www.stirlingultracold.com
Don’t miss out on one more way to reduce energy usage!