Patent ID: 7127901

Claim:
A method for controlling distribution of refrigerant among a plurality of refrigerators comprising: at a controller, determining an available quantity of the refrigerant; at a controller, determining a demand of the refrigerant by each of the plurality of refrigerators, the demand depending on the operation of each refrigerator; at a controller, aggregating the refrigerant demand of the refrigerators; at a controller, determining, for each of the refrigerators, an allocation of the refrigerant based on the availability of the refrigerant, the aggregated refrigerant demand and the individual refrigerant demands of the refrigerators with respect to the other refrigerators, the allocation computed as a portion of the determined available quantity; distributing the refrigerant to the refrigerators based on the determined allocation; and redistributing the refrigerant over time by redetermining the allocation of the refrigerant.