Fume Hood Testing is Essential

As a lab owner it’s key to ensure ideal working and safety conditions for your employees and staff.  A key area to address is your fume hood.  Like all safety equipment, every fume hood has a specific purpose and ideal working environment it should provide, but many lab owners and staff aren’t aware that fume hoods can be poorly calibrated.

Areas calibrating and testing of your fume hoods can benefit your lab include:

• Safety – Fume hoods have ideal face velocities depending on their application.  If your fume hood system isn’t functioning properly you could have fume spillage, and possible safety hazards for your laboratory staff.
• Energy Efficiency – As with many other systems in your lab or building, poorly calibrated fume hoods can lead to expensive energy consumption.  Not all ductwork, exhaust blowers, and alarms are created the same.  By fine tuning your fume hood to your specific “system” you can greatly improve efficiency and cost savings
• Wear – Getting a proper fume hood test could find worn parts or needed repairs.  If left unnoticed many of these repairs could lead to more costly expenses, health hazards and poor efficiency.  It’s important to have your fume hood “system” thoroughly inspected, not just the hood face velocity itself.

If you own a fume hood and haven’t had it tested you’re not maximizing its safety and performance potential.