DCHAS-L Archives, Aug 21 2020 - Re: [DCHAS-L] Freezer Back-up Contingency Plans

Debbie,

Some of the strategies when I was still in Biological Sciences:

Campus wide power generation back up. Obviously, a campus level decision. But not only can we provide power to all of campus, it gives us bargaining power on pricing with suppliers (they can cut us off with notice).

Building-wide backup. We, fortunately, had excess generator capacity in the biology building and for less than expected, we were able to provide back up power for all the -80's and a few critical -20's. It would have been significantly more expensive if we had to add a new generator. The biggest challenge when doing this is determining what cooling units are "critical." Irreplaceable samples got priority. Expensive reagents got some priority, but they are at least replaceable.

At the individual unit level you can evaluate alarms (local vs. calling out), preventative maintenance (alarms don't work if their battery systems aren't maintained), and splitting critical samples.

We did not use LN or CO2 backup systems - in part because the older ones weren't very reliable (newer ones might work better) and they require regular maintenance.

For -20 freezers, I reminded researchers to keep them full so they stay cold longer - fill empty spaces with those extra shipping cold blocks or milk jugs filled with water.

Good luck,

Jeff

On Fri, Aug 21, 2020 at 12:57 PM Debra M Decker <00001204b93f9a5e-dmarc-request**At_Symbol_Here**lists.princeton.edu> wrote:

Hi all

Power is a less reliable commodity right now in Northern California. There's been some discussion about how to support -80/-20 storage when power goes out but no campus-wide planning. Some buildings do have back up generator capacity but most do not. There's also the local issue when an individual freezer goes down or needs defrosting or repair.

Has anyone developed any contingency plans or campus-wide resource for cold storage? I suppose it's not a true safety issue but loss of research materials is a grave risk. Some chemicals or synthesis products could become unstable upon loss of cold storage.

Thoughts?

Debbie

Debbie M. Decker, ACS Fellow

Programming Co-Chair, DCHAS

dmdecker**At_Symbol_Here**ucdavis.edu

916.616.7548

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