Most lab buildings are heavy equipment users, which obviously generates a lot of heat. In some cases, this equipment can easily be ganged together and placed outside the lab. This enables designers to consider other strategies for dealing with the cooling load.

At the Centers for Disease Control and Infectious Disease Laboratory laboratories in Atlanta, for example, each lab required a special freezer, a particularly high source of heat. These freezers were placed in the service corridor and cooled directly with chilled water. This greatly reduced the quantity of air that had to be cooled, cutting the overall energy load.