A Greener Way to Prevent Electrical Overheating

Posted July 2, 2018byNoren Thermal

When it comes to electrical thermal management, there are several considerations beyond how effectively a system can operate without overheating. For instance, air conditioners can successfully accomplish this goal for prolonged periods of time, but the costs of energy and maintenance associated with them often make them cumbersome in many ways. They also make it more difficult for companies to successfully transform their operations to become greener and more eco-friendly. In addition to reinventing the way electrical enclosures are cooled, heat exchangers also help address the increasingly more pressing concern of going green.

Cooling Instead of Chilling Enclosures

One of the biggest changes heat exchangers created was the change in which companies thought about electrical thermal management. It always made sense to chill an electrical enclosure to stop waste heat from collecting into pockets. Yet, heat exchangers accomplish the same goals of preventing overheating without having to use chilled air. Instead, they transfer the heat to keep the enclosure cool enough to stay well below the system’s maximum operating temperature. The difference between cooling and chilling is that cooling can be accomplished without the need for expensive, complicated equipment, and with a significantly smaller environmental footprint overall.

How Is That Greener?

The ability to keep systems cool at a lower overall cost is an obvious benefit to any company, but the eco-friendly aspects of heat exchangers may not be so obvious. The secret is in how the thermal management units transfer heat using combinations of conduction, natural/forced convection, and phase-change cooling. These processes utilize little more than cooling fluid that flows through specially designed units (i.e., heat pipes, cold plates, thermal pins) and, in some cases, one or a few small fans for faster heat transfer. This means they not only use less energy, but rely on completely eco-friendly processes to operate.

To learn more about greener ways to prevent electrical overheating with heat exchangers, call Noren Thermal Solutions in Taylor, TX, at 866-936-6736.