Open source · Cold chain · Real-world evidence
Does the cold chain pencil?
Real estate. Refrigeration. Power. Operating costs.
We’re building open tools to connect the evidence, check the assumptions, and show the math behind cold-storage decisions.
30 years of transaction experience. $8 billion in closed deals. Self-funded. No VC. No token.
Why coldchainOS
The product has a clock.
The building has a power bill. The deal has assumptions. Connect them.
A cold-storage facility is a building, a refrigeration system, an electrical load and a capital decision, at once. The offering memorandum, the utility bill, the service file and the lease each tell part of the story, and they can disagree. We’re building open tools to make the source visible, make missing information explicit, and make the math reproducible, with accountable people making the call.
The dev room is a local-only prototype. Nothing you choose is uploaded.
Latest from the Digest
Digest, Nov 9, 2026: OT security comments, EIA’s next outlook, last-mile demand, HFC dates
Four dated items for cold-storage owners and underwriters: NIST’s OT security draft is open for comment, EIA’s next outlook is due Nov 10, delivered-grocery growth, and EPA’s refrigerant installation dates.
The pencil question: Which of these four moves a line in our evidence file this week: the controls, the power bill, the route, or the equipment schedule?
Last mile
The cold chain ends at the handoff.
A warehouse can hold the product. The last mile has to deliver it, on time, in the required condition, at a cost the operation can support. We’re mapping how the local node, the route and the operating math fit together, with sourced context and a small route-economics calculator.
Context and planned work. coldchainOS does not operate deliveries.
New era
The cold chain is becoming a connected machine.
Robotics, software, compute and electricity now depend on each other. We’re investigating those dependencies, how confidential records should be handled, and the datasets and evaluations that would help people spot gaps. We’re not a deployed security product or a refrigeration controller.
Investigation and planned work, with a dated source snapshot.
The problem
A cold box is only as strong as its operating assumptions.
The facts that decide a cold-storage deal rarely live in one place. The lease, the equipment records, the utility bills, and the operator’s habits sit in separate documents, each written for a different purpose. When they stay disconnected, an optimistic assumption in one can quietly override reality in another, and the actual economics stay hidden until it’s expensive to find out.
The building
Usable space, insulation, layout, loading, and condition.
The machinery
Refrigeration capacity, equipment condition, maintenance, and the requirements of the stored product.
The operating math
Electricity, demand charges, utilization, downtime, and replacement costs.
What we’re building
Evidence in. Assumptions visible. Math you can check.
Project direction — in development, not a list of released features.
- In development
Document and evidence intake
Bring leases, equipment records, and utility bills into one place so nothing important stays buried.
- In development
Transparent underwriting calculations
Every number traceable to its inputs, so assumptions are visible and the arithmetic can be checked.
- In development
Domain-specific datasets and evaluations
Cold-chain examples and tests that show whether a tool actually handles the real problem.
- In development
Tools that can run on locally controlled compute
Work with sensitive operating data without sending it somewhere you don’t control.
- 1Collect evidence
- 2Identify gaps
- 3Check assumptions
- 4Review the math
A working example
Every decision starts with a number you can check.
This small calculator shows the spirit of the project: simple inputs, visible formulas, and nothing hidden. It’s educational, not a full operating-cost model, refrigeration sizing, or a savings guarantee.
Field lab
Build it. Measure it. Publish what holds up.
The portable cooler has been acquired. System integration and performance validation are still ahead.
We’re investigating where recovered heat could serve a useful load, and measuring the complete energy balance before making performance claims.
Founder-reported hardware
- An acquired portable 8 × 20-foot Polar King cooler.
- Fiberglass enclosure with insulated walls and floor on a steel chassis.
- A research concept involving two S21 Pro Bitcoin miners and potential useful applications of their waste heat.
An experiment, secondary to the cold-chain underwriting work.
Founder and open-source ethos
Experience worth paying forward.
“A healthy cold chain helps protect our children’s future.”
- 30 years in commercial real estate transactions, with $8 billion in closed deals.
- Prior leadership of a national industrial team.
- Self-funded, with an open-source direction.
- Built in collaboration with the community.
If our experience can help you solve a real cold-chain problem, bring it to the table. Share what you know. Challenge the assumptions. Help us build something useful.
Questions
Plain answers.
- What is coldchainOS?
- coldchainOS is an independent, self-funded, open-source project in active development. It is building tools to connect source documents, operating evidence, transparent calculations and reviewable findings behind cold-storage decisions.
- What does “Does the cold chain pencil?” mean?
- It asks whether the real estate, refrigeration equipment, energy costs and operating assumptions of a cold-storage decision actually add up, with the evidence and the math visible so people can check them.
- Is there a finished platform?
- No. What exists today is this website, educational calculators, illustrative worked examples, a small sample dataset, draft evaluation cases and a local-only prototype. There are no customers, integrations, measured savings or certifications.
- Who is behind it?
- A founder with 30 years of commercial real estate transaction experience and prior national industrial team leadership (founder-reported). The project has no venture capital and no token.
- Is it open source, and under what license?
- The code and documentation are in the public GitHub repository under the MIT License. The brand assets (name, wordmark, mark and Bull artwork) and the sample dataset records are not covered by that license.
- Can I upload confidential documents to the site?
- No. The public website accepts no uploads. The dev room is a local-only prototype that reads only file names in your browser and sends nothing anywhere.
- Is the sample dataset real transaction data?
- No. The published CRE sample records are model-generated training data, not extracted from real transactions. Property and tenant names are synthetic.
- How do I contact the project?
- Use the contact form at coldchainos.org/contact/, email bull@coldchainos.org, or open an issue on GitHub. Please do not send confidential documents; the project has no secured channel for them.
- How can I contribute?
- Explore the GitHub repository and open an issue with a real problem, field knowledge, a dataset or a correction.
Bring a real problem. Let’s work the pencil.
Useful problems, field knowledge, datasets, and contributions are all welcome.