The refrigeration products are nice, as long as they work without much hassles. But, failure can result in extended period of down time. If the nature of the problem is complex involving the replacement of the compressor, the down time is anywhere between 12 to 36 hours before the system is back to normal operation as it involves diagnosis, confirmation and cutting of the compressor as needed, vaccumisation, pressure holding, testing and checking and then charging the refrigerant and after all these wait till the temperature is attained. The failure in any refrigeration product starting with the basic 4°C refrigerator for storage of blood bags can be elegantly handled with the simple innovative approach.

One can choose a common liquid in a thermally conducting container, and these cooling panels will be housed inside the machine in adequate quantity based on the number of blood bags stored and the cooling capacity called for, such that the liquid will be in the solid form at the frozen temperature corresponding to high alarm condition. In the case of refrigerator set at 4°C, it will be typically at 6 or 7°C, and when there is a failure in the refrigeration section/compressor or power outage, the liquid in the solid form shall start melting and in the process absorbing heat from within the chamber maintaining the temperature inside between 4 to 5°C, the required optimum level. This is an effective and simple way of maintaining the chamber temperature at 4 or 5°C, with time frame varying with number of panels used, and can be managed varying between 24 to 12 hours based on the number of bags in the chamber, since often the retention is longer when the chamber is filled upto to 80 to 100% capacity, compared to only 30 to 50% capacity as the case may be.

The fluid in cooling panel used is inexpensive and the quantity needed can be chosen with appropriate manipulation for the temperature needed to transit from solid to liquid phase and elegantly employed for critical applications by using basic principle of phase change of material. This does not call for harmful chemicals, and liquid employed even if leaking does not cause damage or harm. The method and process chosen are very simple, very effective and very economical. It is typically indicated here for storage of blood, but equally well applicable for refrigerated storage of any critical material wherever involved.

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Note:

The above information is primarily related to building chambers with refrigeration with volumes varying between 100 to 1000 litres, and for various temperature ranging from +4°C to -80°C , to function at an ambient of 32°C and including appropriate variations and modifications as applicable for different application needs.