Global Cooling, Inc., has introduced a Stirling Ultracold -80°C ultra-low temperature freezer using 100% natural refrigerant cooling system. No other freezer for sale in the United States offers 100% natural refrigerants in its cooling system.
According to Stirling Ultracold President Neill Lane, use of the Model SU780UE upright freezer will increase money available for basic medical research by reducing ultra-low storage operating costs by more than half.
“This milestone dramatically enhances Stirling Ultracold’s commitment to offer users the best freezer performance on the market, with the lowest total cost of ownership and a dramatically better environmental sustainability profile than possible from the competition,” said Lane.
“The financial implications on medical research are enormous. For example, the average ultra-low freezer uses as much energy in a year as an average American household. Facilities often have hundreds and even thousands of freezers in operation to protect critical research specimens. Because our freezer cuts energy consumption more than in half, scarce financial resources can instead be allocated to basic research instead of to operate energy-inefficient freezers,” Lane emphasized.
Shipments of the Model SU780UE began in March 2014. The company is now scaling up production to meet a growing demand from pharmaceutical, biomedical and medical research institutions worldwide.
The 27.5 cubic feet SU780UE uses about 10 grams of helium in its Stirling engine and about 90 grams of ethane in the thermosiphon. The freezer is UL listed. The United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP) Program has found the company’s submission to use ethane in this application complete; therefore Global Cooling is able to sell freezers containing ethane.
Helium has no global warming potential (GWP). Ethane has a GWP of 5.5. In contrast, a typical ultra-low freezer sold in the United States uses HFC refrigerants in its cooling system – around 300 to 400 grams of R407D (GWP 1,627) and 600 to 700 grams of R508B (GWP 13,396). The net effect is that these refrigerants are up to 17,000 times more damaging to the environment than those in the Model SU780UE cooling system.
Compared to any competing freezer, the Model SU780UE delivers the best pull-down from ambient, the best recovery following door opening and best temperature stability, all while using less than half the energy and rejecting less than half the heat into the room.
A 7-year engine warranty based on fewer moving parts and lower maintenance potential is included with each freezer at no additional cost.
The International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER) awarded the original Stirling Ultracold -80°C SU780U freezer the 2013 Outstanding New Product Award at their annual meeting in Sydney, Australia.
The SU780UE is now the standard 27.5 cubic feet freezer from Stirling Ultracold. The R508B version is available by special order, and performance in the ethane version is unchanged. Both the cabinet and Stirling cooling engine are manufactured in the United States at Global Cooling’s Athens, Ohio, facility.