The True Energy Vaccine Refrigerator can keep its
contents cold for ten days without power
Any time there’s a prolonged power outage in warm weather,
chances are that one of your first thoughts is “What’ll happen
to all the food in my fridge?”. Well, imagine if instead of a
week’s worth of groceries, your unpowered refrigerator was full
of vaccines, vital to the well-being of an entire African
village. In rural third world countries, power failures are
common, as are high temperatures – not a great combination for
things that need to be kept cold. Fortunately, some aid agencies
have the option of using a True Energy Vaccine Refrigerator. It
can store US$30,000 worth of medicine below 10C (50F) in 43C
(109F) ambient temperatures, for over ten days at a time,
without power.
The refrigerator runs off mains power, solar power, or a
combination of sources. It incorporates True Energy's Sure Chill
technology, which utilizes high-density polyurethane foam
insulation and an undisclosed “innovative phase change material”
to store energy until it’s needed, allowing for consistently
cool temperatures regardless of interruptions in the power
supply. It can run indefinitely on less than five hours of mains
power per day. Once fully charged, as already mentioned, the
phase change material can keep the fridge going for ten days
without any power input at all. As a side benefit, this
non-battery power-storing capability is also said to make it
twice as energy-efficient as similar products.
Utilizing an intelligent monitoring system, it detects warm
objects within its cabinet and reacts to extract heat, keeping
all of its contents at a temperature of between 4 and 6C (39 and
43F). According to the company, other systems can inadvertently
freeze some objects as they try to maintain the correct
temperature for others.
True Energy Vaccine Refrigerators are currently in use by
agencies such as the World Health Organization and Unicef. The
company is also looking into using its
Sure Chill technology in products such as commercial
refrigerators, drinks coolers, air conditioners and
telecommunications infrastructure cooling.
Copyright © gizmag 2003 - 2010 To subscribe or visit go to:
http://www.gizmag.com