Determining which laboratory fume hood is right for your lab is a very important decision. Mostly it depends on what you will be using the lab for but other factors, such as operator convenience and ease-of-use, budget as well as ventilation duct design also play key roles. Luckily, the market for fume hoods has expanded which provides different lab fume hood options for different uses. Here is a quick list of the different types of fume hoods and purposes.
Energy efficiency and safety are the two main goals of a high performance fume hood. The aim is to save money by conditioning and exhausting only the air that is needed thus reducing the total volume and maximizing efficiency.
The bypass fume hood is essentially the improved-upon product of a conventional fume hood. It’s designed to minimize vapor spillage through constant exhaustion and by directing the air away from the work environment.
The brilliance of a variable air volume (VAV) fume hood design is the regulation of air flow. Rather than being a constant air flow system, the VAV fume hood allows for variation thereby reducing unwanted airflow and overall cost of operation.
The advantage of an add air fume hood is that up to 70% of the air required for the station can be pulled in and utilized from the outside. By using unconditioned, outside air, energy consumption is effectively minimized.
The bypass fume hood is essentially the improved-upon product of a conventional fume hood. It’s designed to minimize vapor spillage through constant exhaustion and by directing the air away from the work environment.
In the event that your lab requires large pieces of equipment it may be necessary to use a walk-in fume hood that’s designed to house large testing equipment aparatus effectively maximizing safety for such applications.
Labs that use perchloric, or other types of acid, require specific fume hoods that have wash-out capabilities to prevent the potentially dangerous build-up of explosive perchlorate.
Not unlike the perchloric acid fume hood, this specific type is used when handling radioactive materials. User safety and convenience are paramount in the design of a sound radio isotope fume hood.
It’s essential to the function of a lab to install the correct type of fume hood. Not only is the function of the lab as whole at stake, but so is the safety of your operators.
