Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Reduced worker exposure and improved energy efficiency in industrial fume-hoods using an airvest

Conference ·
OSTI ID:10165576

Reduction in the breathing zone concentration of an experimentally simulated pollutant, by factors ranging from 100 to 800, was observed with the device (called an airvest). With use of the airvest by the worker, the hood face velocity can be reduced, leading to substantial energy savings in conditioning of make up air in the building. The airvest works by elimination or ventilation of the eddy that develops in front of a worker when the worker stands in the open face of a fume hood. Normally this eddy draws some of the pollutant (commonly generated near and in front of the worker) towards the worker`s breathing zone. Experiments sing a heated full-size mannequin were conducted with a full scale walk-in fume hood. Sulfur hexafluoride was used to simulate pollutant generation and exposure during a work situation. Flow visualization with smoke was also undertaken to evaluate the airvest qualitatively. 3 refs.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley Lab., CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States); California Inst. for Energy Efficiency, Berkeley, CA (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC03-76SF00098
OSTI ID:
10165576
Report Number(s):
LBL--32244; CONF-921095--1; ON: DE92017023; CNN: Grant BG 90-225
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Similar Records

Impact of flow separation on exposure and hood-capture efficiency. Final report
Technical Report · Wed Jan 31 23:00:00 EST 1990 · OSTI ID:5480455

Ventilation: Fume Hoods Self-Study Course # 48002
Technical Report · Sun Dec 03 23:00:00 EST 2023 · OSTI ID:2228647

Fume hood performance: Face velocity variability inconsistent air volume systems
Journal Article · Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 1998 · Applied Occupational and Environmental Hygiene · OSTI ID:290247