Held at the University of California Irvine (UCI) in coordination with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Better Buildings Smart Labs Accelerator, this workshop will include updated information about UCI’s Smart Labs Program and focus on topics that are important to workshop participants.

Intended for laboratory building owners and their teams (including facility operation staff, energy managers, safety managers, upper management staff, laboratory users and researchers, and engineers), this workshop offers participants the chance to experience firsthand the day-to-day operations of UCI’s Smart Labs Program.

The programmatic approach to designing, operating, and maintaining safe and efficient laboratories is continuously being improved. What started as a series of retrofits and dashboards in 2008 has become a platform for environmental health and safety and facilities management to cohesively manage complex space 10 years later. A 50% reduction in lighting and HVAC energy, longer equipment life, quieter lab zones, and fewer hot and cold calls are the tangible results that pay for the program.

Smart Labs goes beyond energy retrofits, consisting of the classification of buildings and lab space, understanding the effectiveness of dilution ventilation, tuning the systems, and ensuring the systems are functioning properly, Smart Labs is comprehensive in its approach to laboratory management.

During this workshop, UCI and its partners will cover what they have done, who does what, how they do it, and lay out a framework for you to adapt for your organization.