Heat Resistant Laboratory Duct Chemical Fume Hood with Steel Base

It's the air being sucked through the fume hood, not the fume hood itself that consumes so much energy. For health and safety reasons, labs use 100% outside air which must be heated or cooled for comfort before it is brought into the lab. In addition to the energy required to condition the air, a significant amount of additional electricity is required to run large fans to move the air through the building and through the fume hoods.

Most fume hoods at Stanford are variable air volume (VAV), meaning that the fume hoods are designed to vary the air flow based on how wide open the sash height is. Sash position is connected to the building's ventilation system so that a building's fan speed and the volume of air moved is reduced when the sash is lowered.

The sash is an important safety barrier between the fume hood interior and the laboratory, protecting the lab user. Sashes should be opened only to set up or modify an experiment. At all other times, shutting the sash is safest. When the sash is shut there is still some air flow through the hood to remove any fumes.

You can post a sticker, like the one shown in the picture below, to remind yourself and your lab mates to close the sash when not in use. The sticker also educates new fume hood users tha a lower sash is safer, and that the sash should only be open when setting up and modifying experiments.

Never use a fume hood just for storing chemicals - they belong in a safety cabinet, which doesn't require huge volumes of air. If your fume hood has an occupancy switch, turn it off when not in use. If your group is no longer using a specific fume hood, consider having it locked and de-commissioned so air no longer flows through it.