Enclosures ready for summer

A RiAssure3 survey will identify the likely risk of a system overheating.  The survey will review any existing cooling solution and determine how suited it is to that particular working environment. If necessary, it will then provide recommendations around remedial action – for example, changes to the system’s service and maintenance regime to help improve its efficiancy or the recommendation to invest in different climate control technology.

Rittal engineers will always offer their advice from the perspective of functionality, energy efficiency, ease of installation, service and maintenance, based on real life data measured on site.

Your decision as to which cooling solution you choose ultimately depends on the amount of heat produced inside the panel and the environment in which it’s installed.  Your choice, in other words, must be specific to your particular application.

The main consideration is whether the panel is located in a cold or hot environment and if that environment is clean or dirty.  It would be nice, actually, if the answers were as black and white as these questions suggest!   They typically fall somewhere in between.  Conditions may also change over the course of the working day, week, month or year, so the final selection of an appropriate cooling solution may not be entirely straightforward.

Enclosures which are located in a cool and clean environment may find fan-and-filter units are adequate, given a single device provides more than 4 kW of cooling in ideal conditions.   If the air is dirty, it is still possible to take full advantage of low ambient temperatures by using energy efficient air-to-air heat exchangers to provide any necessary cooling.

For applications that require the temperature inside the enclosure to be lower than that outside it, a refrigerant based solution may be the best option. The new Blue e+ cooling unit range from Rittal, with capacities up to 6 kW, can operate in ambient temperatures up to 60 degrees Celsius yet also provide free cooling when the external air is cooler due to the innovative use of hybrid technology.

Air-to-water heat exchangers may be used in even hotter conditions and the water delivered to a remote location in which the heat, up to 10 kW from one unit, may be dissipated more effectively and with less effect on the temperature of the surroundings.