Trial samples, a minus 80 degree freezer and the Dutch electricity bill
Every clinical study of a cancer drug such as aldoxorubicin produces blood and tissue samples that are kept for later analysis, and laboratories store them in ultra-low temperature freezers at about minus 80 degrees Celsius. Such a freezer runs day and night for years. According to the US Department of Energy, a conventional ultra-low temperature freezer uses approximately 20 kWh per day, as much as an average U.S. household, and a less efficient model reaches 7,300 kWh in a year.
A Dutch home needs far less. Milieu Centraal gives an average of 2,430 kWh of electricity a year, plus 1,040 m3 of gas. Each of those kWh is billed at the rate written in the energiecontract with your leverancier, so the rate times your use makes the bill. A household that finds a lower rate can change supplier, and in Dutch that step is overstappen energie.
- Freezer at minus 80, less efficient model: about 7,300 kWh a year.
- Freezer with the ENERGY STAR label: about 5,019 kWh a year.
- Average Dutch household: 2,430 kWh a year, priced by its energiecontract.
- Before you switch: look up the end date of your contract and any opzegvergoeding.
Sources: US Department of Energy, Laboratory-grade refrigerators and freezers; Milieu Centraal, Gemiddeld energieverbruik
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