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The total cost of owning an ultra-low temperature (ULT) freezer for your biotech research or biopharma lab is the sum of the purchase price, plus costs for energy, cooling, floor space and the usual compressor replacement. Your ULT freezer cost goes beyond the base price of the freezer. Did you know that initial purchase price accounts for less than 30% of the total cost of owning a typical ULT freezer? What about the other 70%+? Have you considered what your ULT freezers are costing you in floor space, HVAC, and compressor replacement parts? With the Stirling Ultracold VAULT100, you will end up saving large amounts of money. Even though our initial cost can be higher than a traditional compressor-based unit, you will see the savings in all the other benefits it provides. In fact, if you were to remove the initial cost of the standard compressor-based freezer completely, in other words, if the freezer was free, our unit would often still be cheaper on a total lifetime cost basis.
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When it comes to building out your facility and looking to upgrade the number of freezers without redesigning the whole laboratory, Stirling Ultracold offers a competitive solution. Our VAULT100 has a much smaller physical footprint while providing the same storage capacity as our competitors. You can also place the VAULT100 directly against the wall and there is a much smaller offset between freezers to reduce your space utilization even further. Your facility can save money by opting to use a higher sample density freezer like our upright model. Fifteen Stirling VAULT100 freezers can store 1,200-2,200 more 2-inch sample boxes in the same space as 13 competitive models. That’s more efficient use of valuable laboratory floor space!
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Until the introduction of the Stirling free-piston engine ultra-low temperature (ULT) freezer technology saw little change or improvement over the last five decades. And yet, compressor-based freezers demand large amounts of power to operate . . . as much as the average U.S. home! Now there is a more cost-effective and energy-efficient freezer alternative with Stirling Ultracold. Consider the cumulative savings of replacing multiple compressor-based ULTs with Stirling energy-efficient freezers.
\nStirling Ultracold ultra-low freezers use significantly less energy to operate than the standard compressor-based system. Our models also reduce HVAC requirements because they reject less than one third the heat of typical compressor-based ULT systems. The reduced heat also means researchers will be more comfortable when working near the Stirling freezers.
\nAt -100° C, the Stirling Ultracold VAULT100 upright freezer uses 70-75% less energy than legacy standard compressor-based ULT freezers. That translates into immediate savings in laboratory energy consumption and costs that are significant over the freezer’s life.
\nThere are many different ways to test ultra-low freezers. Until recently, this lack of a test standard had made it impossible for ULT buyers to accurately compare the energy use of different models. Efforts by the EPA and manufacturers produced the industry-standard Final Test Method, used as the certification for ENERGY STAR® freezers. Stirling Ultracold was the first to submit energy test data to the EPA for the industry leading SU780XLE using this new industry standard. Now that other freezers have also submitted their data, the EPA has created the laboratory grade ultra-low freezer category. Please visit energystar.gov to review these standardized results.
\nThese advantages have also been noted by several electric utility providers who have begun offering custom utility rebates for replacing compressor based cascade freezers with Stirling units. While savings will depend on how many freezers you replace, and the specific rebate your energy provider offers, some Stirling Ultracold users have already been awarded hundreds of dollars per freezer by utilities and through internal energy/sustainability initiatives. Contact your Stirling Ultracold account manager to get help with the rebate application process for your utility.
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