Sure Chill Technology

Sure Chill Technology is a cooling system for medical refrigerators that keeps its contents cold without a continuous power supply, using the physical properties of water to store thermal energy rather than relying on batteries. It was developed by Ian Tansley of Tywyn, Wales, after years of frustration with unreliable battery-dependent vaccine refrigerators used in remote locations, and the technology gained wider recognition in 2013 when it received a 100,000 dollar research award from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, followed by a further 1.4 million dollar grant in 2014. Its ice-mass system can hold a refrigerator at about 4 degrees Celsius for more than ten days without power, running on either electricity or solar power, which makes it valuable for storing vaccines in regions of Africa and elsewhere with unreliable electrical infrastructure.