Solutions · labs
A freezer failure at 3am can destroy fifteen years of research.
Lab infrastructure protects work no insurance policy can replace.
Research labs are among the most infrastructure-dependent spaces in any portfolio. Fume hoods, cryogenic storage, BSL containment, and environmental chambers all depend on HVAC, power, and backup systems most facility teams track in spreadsheets. We map those dependencies so the operations team sees the full picture.
Why lab failures are uniquely catastrophic
Research facilities combine the energy intensity of an industrial plant with the regulatory weight of healthcare. The cost of a failure is measured in lost science, not lost kilowatt-hours.
Ultra-low freezers protecting decades of samples have hours of thermal margin during a power failure. Not days.
A -80C freezer starts warming the moment power is lost. CO2 backup buys 24 to 48 hours. If the generator does not start, the transfer switch fails, or nobody notices the alarm, the samples are gone. No funding replaces 15 years of specimens.
Fume hoods and BSL spaces need precise air changes per hour. Those depend on AHU performance.
A fume hood face velocity below 100 fpm is a safety hazard. A BSL-3 lab that loses negative pressure is a shutdown event. Both depend on AHUs that are often shared with adjacent non-lab spaces and degrade quietly between commissioning cycles.
Research funding cycles do not align with facility budget cycles. PIs cannot wait two fiscal years for a chiller.
A PI with a $3M NIH grant cannot run experiments if the lab HVAC is unreliable. The chiller replacement sits in the university queue behind a dormitory renovation. The research moves to another institution, and the indirect cost recovery goes with it.
BSL-2 and BSL-3 suites must sustain negative pressure, HEPA exhaust, and interlock integrity to stay registered
CDC and USDA select-agent registrations depend on documented containment performance. A BSL-3 suite that drops negative pressure, even briefly, triggers incident reporting, facility suspension, and a requalification that can idle a program for weeks. The exhaust fan VFD and its backup are regulatory assets, not just mechanical ones.
How Rivolq helps research facility teams
Map every freezer, cryotank, and chamber to the power and cooling chain that protects it
We trace the path from ultra-low freezer to outlet to panel to generator to fuel supply. When any link degrades, you see which research assets are exposed and how many hours of thermal margin remain under current conditions.
Track hood face velocity, room pressure, and air change rates against safety thresholds
Lab safety depends on systems performing to spec continuously. We monitor the AHUs, exhaust fans, and controls that maintain safe conditions, and flag when drift approaches the threshold where certification or containment is at risk.
Build spending requests that connect infrastructure condition to research revenue
Facility teams compete for money against every other priority. We quantify the research revenue at risk from a failure, so the chiller replacement is framed as protecting $12M in active grants. Not just swapping old equipment.
Prioritize retro-commissioning and ACH reductions where they pay back fastest and safely
Lab buildings use 5x the energy of office space, much of it driven by conservative air change rates set at commissioning and never revisited. We identify hoods, rooms, and AHUs where occupancy-based ventilation or validated ACH setbacks can cut energy without compromising containment. The savings track against sustainability goals and utility rebates.
Protect the research before the funding walks.
Map the infrastructure dependencies behind irreplaceable science. Justify the spending in language leadership understands.