A fume hood for light-weight vapor use in the lab.

By Odette Nolan, Product Manager

On March 23, 2012 in Articles

While fume hoods are the work horse of the lab, they are also the energy hogs. Employing the help of a rooftop blower, fume hoods evacuate expensive tempered air from the lab in large volumes. So, not only are you using energy to heat or cool air that you will eventually remove, you are using energy to power the blower to pull that expensive air out. This is a necessity for most wet chemistry techniques; however, some techniques require low volumes of solvents.

The Protector® XVS™ Ventilation Stations are ideally used as light duty fume hoods, science classroom work stations, solvent cleaning work bays, weighing stations or for pathology or cytology labs. They have low profiles and have glass tops and sides. They provide an economical solution as an alternative to the traditional fume hoods.

If you compare a 4’ Protector XVS with a 4’ Protector® Premier® Fume Hood in terms of energy usage, an XVS can run at a face velocity of 60 fpm while a Premier Fume Hood runs at 100 fpm. That translates into a volume of 150 CFM versus 470 CFM of air needed for an XVS Ventilation Station versus the fume hood.

Knowing that it costs the same amount to temper one CFM, whether or not it is in an XVS or a fume hood, it would take 68% less energy for protection using an XVS for light duty chemical use. Yes, 68% less!

Protector XVS Ventilation Stations, constructed of epoxy coated steel and tempered safety glass, offer some flexibility when it comes to exhaust options. The XVS can be connected to a remote blower and exhausted to the outside (make sure to budget for the remote blower, ductwork ASD installation costs).

Alternatively, they may be connected to the FilterMate™ Portable Exhauster(s). The FilterMate Portable Exhauster can be configured to house a HEPA filter for particulate capture, a carbon filter for vapor capture or with a combination of both. The addition of a HEPA filter can further the unit’s functionality to also include non-toxic particulate capture.

No matter what your ventilation needs, Labconco offers a complete line of products that fit your application.