Air Handling with Humidity Control ScanClime

The European convention for the protection of vertebrate animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes, ETS 123 specifies a relative humidity of 55% ±10 inside cages for rodents.

Especially during the winter, it can be a real challenge to meet these guidelines and it might affect the health of the animals, the breeding performance and the reproducibility of your research. Mice without fur and pups in particular should be protected from fluctuations in the relative humidity.

ScanClime is an air handling unit that gives you a very accurate, flexible and affordable control of the relative air humidity.

Relative air humidity better than ±3% at any setting between 45% and 65% for enhanced reproducibility of animal research
Consistent relative air humidity all year round in IVCs or Scantainers for optimum animal health
Full compliance with legislation/guidelines for relative air humidity for husbandry
Stand-alone air handling units for maximum flexibility in design and use of animal facilities
Substantial energy savings compared to humidification at room level
Reduced build or refurbishment costs
HEPA filtration of air after humidification/dehumidification for maximum protection against contamination
Available with ScanEye providing online adjustment, monitoring and full documentation of settings and data logging
Performance is independent of mineral content/conductivity of local water supply. Available in versions for use with RO-water or tap water
Humidification of air without generation of ultrasound
Optional holder for health monitoring of air being returned from IVCs using Interceptor from Tecniplast
Applied by numerous animal facilities at leading universities and pharmaceutical companies

European Patent: EP 2918926B1 | US Patent: 10,492,461 | Japanese Patent: JP6182682B2

Temperature, humidity, and latitude analysis to predict potential spread and seasonality for COVID-19

Can accurate control of relative humidity at minimum 55% affect health of research animals, breeding performance and validity of research?

Tighter control of relative humidity improves murine breeding performance – a retrospective analysis

Studies point towards that relative humidity may impact breeding of rodents, aggression in male mice and skin condition of the animals. Get an overview of our current scientific collaborations investigating the effects of controlled relative humidity on animal welfare and reproducibility of data

Major et al. 2019: Pre-weaning mortality of mice housed in individually ventilated cages with and without controlled humidity

This study describes how fluctuating relative humidity, even within guidelines, has significant affect on the animals' water intake. ScanClime provides a very accurate relative humidity for studies, where water intake is considered to be an important parameter

See a list of scientific papers describing how relative humidity affects the health of rodents and thereby potentially reproducibility of animal research

Correct relative humidity requires a substantial amount of energy and water - this is the reason why

Are you curious to know how you can use ScanClime to optimize, monitor and document the environment inside your IVCs and ScanTainers?

ScanClime Brochure: English

ScanClime Brochure: Deutsch/German

An introduction to ScanClime - Accurate relative humidity at rack level for your rodents

Aussagen von Forschern, Tierärzten, Tierhausleitern, Tierpflegern und Technikabteilungen

Accurate relative humidity for your rodents: User statements from researchers, veterinarians etc.

Einführung - ScanClime - Akkurate relative Luftfeuchtigkeit für Ihre Nager

Full description of ScanClime: Where and why it is being applied plus information on technology inside

Einführung und Aussagen - ScanClime - Akkurate relative Luftfeuchtigkeit für Ihre Nager

Low ambient humidity impairs barrier function and innate resistance against influenza infection – American Society for Microbiology

Why is flu more serious during the winter? – Yale University

Calculate your annual water and energy savings

Top managements and QA teams looking for obvious methods to comply with ISO 14001 will quickly realize that ScanClime air handling units provide massive savings and a fast return on investment.

Calculate your savings for water and energy, when converting from humidification at room level to humidificaton at rack level using ScanClime air handling units.

Target is 55% relative humidity at 22°C / 72°F.

Facility specific info - Please fill in your own data

Total floor area of all rooms and corridors in the facility currently being humidified m²

Number of IVCs at the facility cages

Average volume of each IVC litre / cage

Number of air changes per hour at room level air changes / hour

Number of air changes per hour in the IVCs air changes / hour

Energy cost per kWh (Incl. distribution costs, CO₂ emission taxes etc.) Euro / kWh

Cost per m³ of water Euro / m³ water

Climatic zone similar to yours

Water savings per year in m³, EURO and %

Reduction in RO-water/mineral free water to be converted into steam using ScanClime m³ of water / year

Water savings in total in m³ (In this example it requires 3 litres of tap water to generate 1 litre of RO-water) m³ of water / year

Water savings in total in EURO Euro / year

Water savings in % %

Energy savings per year in kWh, EURO and %

Energy savings in kWh (Min.) kWh / year

Energy savings per year in EURO (Min.) Euro / year

Energy savings per year in % (Min.) %

Contact your local Scanbur product specialist for a more detailed calculation on your potential savings.

Notes:

The calculation is based on a target of 55% relative humidity at 22°C / 76 °F
Using ScanClime to obtain a very accurate relative humidity at rack level might improve reproducibility of research and the value of this can be worth millions of EUROs.
Breeding performance of immunodefficient rodents in particular and other strains in general can be improved, when applying accurate humidification of air at rack level. Studies show that the number of pups per litter can be increased and the total litter loss and the preweaning mortality can be reduced significantly.
Calcultated energy savings are likely to be even higher as a loss of energy from centralised steam generators or HVAC air ducts is not included in the above.
Local energy costs per kWh are often significantly higher than anticipated due to transmission costs and tax on CO₂ emissions.
Local energy costs per kWh may vary depending on if the energy is supplied as gas or electricity.
RO-water/mineral free water is applied for generation of steam/humidity. Depending on the efficiency of the reverse osmosis water purification system an amount of of tap water will go to the drain for every litre of RO-water being generated. In this example the ratio is 2:1.
The calculation is based on an average distance from the floor to the ceiling of 3.3 m.