Project Clearinghouse

Thimann Incubators

Sustainability Problem and Proposed Solution: 

Completion of this project would serve the Carbon Fund’s Mission Statement by helping to mitigate climate change through reduction of UCSC’s greenhouse gas emissions and concomitant reduction of our carbon footprint. We calculate that this project would save nearly 36 tons of atmospheric CO2 emissions over the first 20 years (see GHG & Cost Savings Calculator for this project). Our project goals are therefore in direct alignment with the UC president's pledge to become Carbon Neutral by 2025.

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Project Categories: 
Energy & Climate
Project Status: 
Completed
Project End Date: 
08/23/2021
(estimated)
Campus Organization: 
Carbon Fund
Sustainability Office
Affiliated Department, Unit or College: 
Physical and Biological Sciences, MCD Biology
Project Location: 
On campus

Thimann Laboratories

Old, compressor driven incubator


Stakeholder Contacts: 
Contact NameEmail AddressContact NumberDepartment
Julio Harvey
jharvey@ucsc.edu
8314591657
PBSci
Funding Sources: 
Carbon Fund Grant
MCD Biology Instructional Equipment Funds

Project Description: 

Fruit fly incubators are essential for the growth and maintenance of fruit fly stocks that support upper division biology laboratory courses on Science Hill. Our current 1990s era fly incubators use traditional compressors for cooling. These traditional incubators are less energy efficient than modern equivalents equipped with Peltier elements (https://www.lairdthermal.com/thermal-technical-library/white-papers/elec...). Other comparisons of compressor versus Peltier technology are readily available (https://labincubators.net/blogs/blog/peltier-vs-compressor-based-cooling).

We propose to replace three 1990’s era fruit fly incubators with modern equivalents. Due to increased organizational efficiency implemented by our team, we are currently in a position to replace three older devices with a total of only two modern equivalents, reducing our energy use and carbon footprint even further.

Peltier element based cooling (https://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=11389) in the incubators we are targeting has the following advantages over traditional compressor based technology (https://thermal.ferrotec.com/technology/te-modules-vs-traditional-refrig...):

Solid state design
No moving parts
Integrated chip design
No hazardous gases
Silent operation
Compact and lightweight
Low profile
Sizes to match your component footprint
No bulky compressor units
Perfect for benchtop applications
High reliability
100,000 hours + MTBF
Precise temperature stability
Tolerances of better than +/- 0.1°C
Accurate and reproducible ramp and dwell times
Cooling/heating mode options
Fully reversible with switch in polarity
Supports rapid temperature cycling
Dehumidification
Efficient condensation of atmospheric water vapor
Rapid response times
Instantaneous temperature change
Reduced power consumption
Low DC voltage designs
Localized Cooling
Spot cooling for components or medical applications
Perfect for temperature calibration in precision detection systems

Peltier element systems are more precise and therefore use less energy overall compared to compressor-based systems (https://www.lairdthermal.com/thermal-technical-library/white-papers/elec...).

Metrics for Success: 

Resource savings for this project will be measurable with a watt meter, by comparing current electrical use by three aging incubators to use after replacement with two new Peltier element fruit fly incubators.

Next Steps: 
The following steps have all been completed: 1) Identify the most appropriate replacement models (n=2). 2) Complete purchase of the units, receive and install them. 3) Recycle three older units after the two new units are operational.
Result Categories: 
Technology
Results: 

Results for this project can be measured in kWh saved per unit time.

New fruit fly incubators would serve the Biology Teaching Labs (BTL) at UCSC. Thousands of students will pass by or use this equipment over its lifetime. Currently, the existing old, loud, and inefficient incubators represent an unfortunate sustainability eyesore for students, faculty and staff. Therefore, any reduction of use of these units until they can be replaced will be highly beneficial. Purchase of new fly incubators will provide a better educational service to our campus community and demonstrate our commitment to sustainability.

Principles of Community:
It is a culturally and socially diverse group of individuals that will benefit mutually if the project is funded—the responsibility of evolving to greener and cleaner operations falls on the shoulders of all group members equally. Fly incubators are a requirement for successful laboratory operations and our community universally supports steps toward greater energy efficiency.

Our project supports social justice for local and global communities by decreasing CO2 released into our collective atmosphere, benefiting everyone on Earth.

Our project promotes fair and equal access to electricity resources by using less than we do currently. As UCSC collectively moves toward using electricity more efficiently, the local community benefits because those resources become available for common use.

Our project promotes UCSC’s Principles of Community because it will serve a very culturally and socioeconomically diverse group of individuals (Diverse). Through steps to reduce carbon emissions, we are strengthening our commitment to better preserve the natural environment (Purposeful). Through reducing unnecessary resource use our project will help to better care for local communities (Caring), and in doing so, we demonstrate discipline in not settling for the status quo, but rather, striving to advance sustainability objectives (Disciplined).

Project Completion Update
It is evident that these new Peltier element incubators range in energy use from 1.13–1.98 kWh, dramatically lower than expected. Actual measurements taken from two units, over nine, non-consecutive days, under different ambient temperature conditions (range = 20–27℃) reveal an average energy use of only 1.425 kWh/day. Therefore, our original energy consumption savings projection of 40% increased efficiency was inaccurate: our new incubators use only 6.8% as much energy as the old Percivals, so they are ~93% more efficient!

As you can imagine, this new data has dramatic consequences for our GHG & Cost Savings Calculations. Our new calculations reveal that this project is likely to save approximately 11685 kWh per year, even though we have upgraded from the originally proposed two to three new incubators. This translates to Greenhouse Gas reductions of 55.62 tons of CO2 emissions over 20 years and a simple payback period of just over 8 years, down from over 12.5 years in our previous projection.

This project is now complete.

Resources
Related Websites: 
Updated GHG & Cost Savings Calculator for this project