Everything you need to know about energy efficiency drivers in cleanroom design
Cleanrooms consume large amounts of energy compared with the energy consumption in non-classified rooms, like commercial buildings. Literature survey (A. Fedotov) and experience in the field show that cleanrooms use up to 25,3 times more energy (1,25kW/m² vs. 0,06kW/m²) than other rooms that are not being used as cleanroom application.
The energy consumption of HVAC usually amounts to 50-75% of the entire electric consumption in a cleanroom (N. Lenegan), due to the high airflow rates needed to realize a particular cleanliness class in your cleanroom.
In our vision, the energy consumption of a cleanroom directly relates to the design of that cleanroom. In the very near future, different determining factors of energy consumption must be taken into account for achieving an optimized cleanroom design. The energy footprint for example: high energy consumption leads to a high CO2 footprint, but also the economic factor, telling us the importance of manufacturing cost-efficiently, has to be considered. Furthermore, we are aware of markets where cleanroom technology is not even available due to high Life Cycle Costs.
Note: We rather talk about Life Cycle Cost instead of Total Cost of Ownership due to the fact that, at design phase, we already bear in mind the demolition of the cleanroom and the materials that will be used. Nevertheless, the TCO will at all times be an important component of LCC.
5 interrelated forces that drive energy efficiency in modular pre-engineered cleanroom design
By understanding those determining factors that lead to high energy usage, we examined and brought together 5 aspects that help you drive reduced energy consumption and lower the energy footprint in modular pre-engineered cleanroom design.
In this whitepaper, you will learn 5 important forces that are inherent to the design of energy efficient cleanrooms:
- Air Tightness (AT)
- Demand Controlled Filtration (DCF)
- Air Change Effectiveness (ACE)
- Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
- Decentral Ventilation Control (DVC)