While there were a few HR issues to go through with reporting ties, the scientist was eventually able to contribute to the research infrastructure group.
“At ASU, Biodesign is required to think outside the box. The ability to take risks is part of what makes us valuable.”
McLeod believes that now that this precedent has been established, comparable allowances can be developed for other blended positions, such as managing a core lab facility, that benefit from a combination of research and facilities skills.
There is also more interaction, cooperation, and learning between research infrastructure technicians and animal care groups. These activities take place without the benefit of a monetary stipend from a formal position.
The Institute’s 112,414 nsf of lab space, which is a mixed-use facility, accommodates a wide range of lab types:
McLeod highlights that the computations are based on net square footage rather than gross square footage, which produces more similar results. There are no costs for debt service, construction, or startup.
Operating cost benchmarks per nsf are calculated using five key cost categories and their components, as shown in the following data for a basic wet lab:
- $11.60/nsf, 16.4 percent IT (labor, expenditures, connectivity, cameras/equipment, PCs, intrusion system)
- Facilities: $30.36/nsf, 43.1 percent (labor, costs, O&M, custodial, contractors, service contracts, grounds).
- Utilities (electrical, chilled water, steam, emergency generators, and water): $21.64/nsf (30.7%)
While EHS and security costs are consistent across all lab types, higher IT, facilities, and utilities costs drive up the operational totals for the more specialized rooms significantly:
The utilities cost standard for a regular lab is $21.64, whereas the BSL-3 lab benchmark jumps to $39.60/nsf with 83 percent increased energy demand. The ABSL-3 consumes 100% more energy, resulting in a benchmark of $43.28/nsf.
In addition, the select agent program raises expenditures in the facilities and IT categories significantly. The ordinary, BSL-3, and ABSL-3 labs cost $30.36 per nsf, whereas select agent areas cost $57.78 per nsf. The cost of IT is $11.60 per nsf and $24.40 per nsf, respectively.
The Institute is dedicated to lowering energy usage, which is a difficult task given the strict ventilation needs of biocontainment labs.
“We’re moving a lot more air in those facilities,” McLeod says. “We estimate that each CFM costs us roughly $5. As a result, we’ve declared war against CFMs in the building.”
A robustand nearly unprecedentedscheme of measuring and monitoring mechanical and electronic equipment not only yields accurate readings, but also offers feedback, allowing problems to be swiftly discovered and corrected.
“Our continuous improvement plan can take off thanks to ubiquitous monitoring,” he continues. “Biodesign was able to get money to place meters wherever we can, recording data in whatever way conceivable, thanks to its entrepreneurial spirit. We, for example, track electrical consumption all the way down to the distribution panel. We have portable metering that can be used to measure a room or piece of equipment on a temporary basis, down to the component level, such as an air conditioner or an exhaust pump.
“We can determine the costs of a single room using this information and decent charts. “Almost no one else can tell you how much energy a 12-by-20-foot BSL-3 lab costs.”
The extensive analysis made possible by the Meter, Monitor, and Manage program found that HVAC accounts for 74% of total utility costs, rapidly identifying it as the top priority for energy savings. Other conservation measures include encouraging researchers to close fume hood sashes when not in use “Aircuity air sampling and centralized sensors are used in conjunction with Phoenix Controls valves to vary air volumes for just-in-time customer use (down to four air changes per hour) while maintaining very tight negative static control. The data is fed into a Johnson Controls Metasys system, which allows all components to be fine-tuned.
Managing the complexity of the total scheme, according to McLeod, often beyond the capacity of a regular facilities team, but because to Biodesign’s resident knowledge, the system has been calibrated and altered over time to save $1.3 million in energy expenses.
McLeod presented a presentation on biocontainment facilities at Tradeline’s 2014 International Conference on Biocontainment Facilities, which was the basis for this article.
What is the cost of running a laboratory?
Not only is lab space pricey to rent per square foot, but it is also costly to operate. While operational costs will vary greatly based on what each organization accomplishes in the lab, most lab users will suffer the following charges.
Energy Use
According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory website, the cost of energy in a laboratory can range from $5 to $16 per square foot. According to the US Energy Information Administration, office buildings used 15.9kWh/sqft on average in 2012, whereas laboratories used 40.8kWh/sqft, a 2.5-fold difference.
Fume hoods, for example, add to the high energy cost by consuming as much as 2-3 houses’ worth of energy due to the constant movement of air through them. Freezers are also big energy consumers, with ultralow freezers using roughly as much as a typical home. Depending on whether or not they use energy-efficient bulbs, lights can consume a lot of power, and because scientists work longer hours than the usual office worker, these expenditures will be higher as well. Most office buildings only use their air conditioning and heating systems during typical business hours, while laboratories may demand consistent temperatures all day and night, depending on the type of work being done and the hours that the scientists work.
Specialized Waste Disposal
Much of the garbage generated by laboratories is not suitable for disposal in municipal rubbish. Rather, most laboratories use specialist waste disposal companies to collect, track, and dispose of numerous waste streams.
Biohazardous waste and hazardous chemical waste are the most common types of specialized waste in laboratories. Labs working under Biosafety Level 2 (BSL2) conditions routinely generate biohazardous waste. Working with materials that have the potential to cause human disease by liquid transmission necessitates BSL2, and the wastes generated by this work must be disposed of safely so that they do not infect anyone who comes into touch with them. In most cases, this is accomplished by incinerating the waste. Waste pickup and incineration costs vary widely, but start at roughly $1 per pound of waste, plus $100-150 in pickup fees. If a disposal company charges a minimum number of pounds per pickup, say 40 pounds, and a lab gets two pickups per month, that’s at least $280 per month. These expenditures can easily approach $2000 per month, as the amount of waste generated increases with the lab’s activity.
Hazardous chemical waste is significantly more expensive to dispose of because disposal procedures differ based on the type of danger. Disposing just a few liters of hazardous organic solvents might cost $700-$800. Each additional type of hazardous substance will be charged not only for the volume of the material, but also for the different vessels needed to transport it. One possible cost-cutting alternative is to have waste removed infrequently so that transportation costs are reduced, but storing hazardous chemical waste on-site has a time limit. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the time restriction for non-acutely hazardous wastes is 180 days, however state and municipal rules may be stricter.
Environmental Health & Safety
In terms of workplace safety, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) establishes regulations that are enforceable as law. Many states, such as California’s Cal/OSHA, have their own agencies that produce extra regulations. Because the requirements are many and change frequently, all employers must devote some time to ensuring compliance. Laboratories, on the other hand, are subject to many more rules than the average workplace, and OSHA breaches can cost tens of thousands of dollars. As a result, laboratories must either engage environmental health and safety consultants or dedicate a large percentage of an employee’s time to this task. An environmental health and safety consultant’s annual pay in the United States is around $92,000, or nearly $50 per hour. The cost to the lab will almost certainly be higher if the consultant works for a firm.
Monitoring hazardous waste streams, performing safety checks on the laboratory, arranging complete safety training for new employees, arranging annual safety training for all workers, keeping training and incident records, performing evaluations of lab systems to determine if there are safer ways to carry out a task, performing risk assessments for new laboratory procedures, and maintaining OSHA documentation are all tasks that fall under environmental health and safety. This can easily be a full-time employment depending on the size of the organization, the complexity of procedures, and the hazard level of the compounds utilized.
Facility Management
It is extremely important for labs to ensure that the building’s infrastructure is well-maintained. While a lack of water at an office may result in a modest drop in productivity, thousands of dollars’ worth of work could be lost in a laboratory if the water is required to complete an experiment that has already begun.
As a result, it’s critical to manage the facility so that work can continue uninterrupted. Some of this may be done by the building owner, but a lab contains so many specialized systems that need to be maintained that facilities management might take a long time. In the United States, the average facilities manager earns around $100,000.
Equipment Management
Equipment maintenance is critical even in a research and development lab that is not required to follow ISO standards. Keeping lab equipment up and running requires anything from preventative maintenance contracts to routine maintenance duties to making sure broken items are immediately repaired.
Some equipment, such as freezers and incubators, must be monitored as well. Temperatures within the device can be recorded using digital probes. In most cases, the data is posted on a regular basis to an internet program that an employee can review and/or receive notifications from if the equipment is operating outside of the defined parameters.
Equipment management costs vary widely based on the type and quantity of equipment, although these activities are frequently handled by a laboratory manager. The average annual compensation for lab managers in the United States is around $69,000.
What method do you use to calculate utility costs?
To get an estimate of your electricity bill, enter your address into our tool. We estimate what you may owe1 by multiplying the address’s previous energy usage by 10 cents per kWh or an average power price of your choice.
Find the kWh of each appliance and multiply each value by your current electricity rate to get a more precise estimate. To accomplish this, take these four steps:
- Calculate the wattage of the appliance and multiply it by the number of hours it is utilized.
- To convert watts-hours to kilowatt-hours, multiply the amount by 1,000. (kWh)
- Repeat these steps to determine the cost of energy for each item, then add them all up to determine the monthly cost of energy for your complete home.
How do you figure out the cost of utilities per square foot?
The size of your home can have a significant impact on your electricity bills. As a result, it’s a good idea to calculate how much electricity each square foot costs.
Take your most recent monthly electric bill and divide it by the square footage of your home to get an approximation of your own expenses per square foot. If your energy cost is higher than what is displayed in this graph, you might think about switching suppliers to save money.
Creating the business plan
An executive summary, a firm description, a market analysis, an organization and management part, a service or product line section, and a finance request section are all included in a business plan for starting a lab.
The executive summary is the most crucial part of a business plan since it details your expertise and background, as well as the decisions that lead you to desire to establish your own company. The executive summary also explains why your business concept is likely to succeed. If you’re looking for funding, the executive summary is your first chance to pique an investor’s attention.
What is the average amount of electricity used by a small business?
Heating and cooling in commercial buildings consumes an average of 5 kWh/square foot 7 kWh/square foot if ventilation is included while the exact quantity depends on the size of your business and the climate in your location.
What is the cost of utilities?
The cost of using utilities such as power, water, waste disposal, heating, and sewage is known as utilities costs. Expenses are incurred throughout the reporting period, computed and accumulated for, or payment is made.
In a business, what are utilities?
Water, electricity, and gas are all critical utilities that contribute to economic and social development. For effective poverty eradication, high-quality utilities are required.
What is the best way to estimate my electric bill?
You’ll need to find out how much energy each of your appliances and electronic devices use in order to compute your electric bill. Estimating your electricity usage would be as simple as looking at an itemized supermarket ticket in an ideal world. You’d be able to see just how much you spend on the dishwasher, laundry, TV, and a month’s supply of hot water. That technology is growing closer every day, but for now, you’ll have to perform some arithmetic or spend some money to get an appliance-by-appliance analysis.