Design and Implementation of a Low-Cost Smart Cooling System for Medical Devices Using ESP32-Based Sensing and Automatic Control

Abstract

Reliable thermal management is a must-have for the accuracy, safety, and life of sensitive medical devices to the greatest extent possible in hospitals and laboratories operating 24/7. Conventional cooling systems are commonly generic, energy consuming and cannot be customized in situ for the specific thermal requirements of medical devices. Herein we describe a model for a low-cost smart cooling system designed to achieve detection in medical devices with ESP32, to determine control by controlling the power source. The proposed system utilizes a DS18B20 digital temperature sensor to continuously monitor the device temperature and an ESP32 microcontroller for comparing the readings to predetermined setpoints, and drives the cooling fan at 12 V through an NPN transistor. In this way the controller will turn on the fan only when the temperature surpasses the risk limit by avoiding unnecessary operations and power usage. An early experimental test on the prototype shows the device temperature to be within 20-25 °C with an average of ±0.5 °C accuracy. The smart system achieved up to 56% reduction in energy consumption and probable 75% less overheating failure than a conventional always-on cooling configuration. The architecture is modular and can be further extended to provide wireless monitoring and integration with hospital information systems. These results confirm that, if successfully implemented correctly, low-cost microcontroller-based solutions can increase the reliability and energy efficiency of medical device cooling, and can serve as a framework for future IoT-support-enabled medical infrastructure. Download Full Text