DIFFICULT HEAT DISSIPATION: HOW TO COOL ELECTRICAL PANELS IN THIS SITUATION?

There are cases where the dissipation of heat from inside the cabinet to the environment is very difficult, such as those installed in fire protection zones where the cabinet wall must not be breached or for cabinets that are operated under a protective enclosure.

The active cold side is located inside the cabinet and the passive cooler is located outside it.

In a conventional cooling process of an electrical, electronic, or control cabinet, the cooling device is typically installed on one of the side walls or the ceiling of the cabinet. However, there are cases where the dissipation of heat from inside the cabinet to the environment is very difficult, such as those installed in fire protection zones where the cabinet wall must not be breached or for cabinets that are operated under a protective enclosure. In these cases, the heat must be transported out of the cabinet in another way.

The Peltier technology offers a very good solution for this: the separation of the hot side and the cold side into two individual devices that are connected by a fluid flow. This fluid, transported by hoses or pipes, can simply be routed in and out of the cabinet along with the electrical supply lines through the normal cable entry.

Basically, there are three options for building such a system:

Option 1: the "active" cold side is located inside the cabinet and contains the Peltier modules. A heat exchanger based on fluid forms the hot side of this part. A passive heat exchanger (fluid to air) is the second part of the system that will be outside the cabinet. This option is the most versatile and easiest to implement.

Option 2: the passive cold side is located inside the cabinet, meaning the cooler transports the heat from the internal air to the pre-cooled fluid. The active cooler is located outside the cabinet as is the hot side of the system. This option involves issues of transporting the cold fluid over long distances and requires hoses or pipes with good thermal insulation.

Option 3: both components inside and outside the cabinet are active coolers. This option is preferably applied in cases of high ambient temperatures and high temperature differences between the air inside the cabinet and the ambient air. However, the efficiency of such systems is not ideal and the effective power is limited.

The active coolers (hot side) located outside the cabinet can, if necessary, be installed outside the protected zone in which the cabinet is located.

The main fluids used are liquids due to their higher specific heat capacity and incompressibility. Water is the easiest solution but within a control cabinet, there is the risk of leakage and associated damages. As an alternative, oils or electrically non-conductive liquids can be considered. Gases are also conceivable but reduce the performance of the system. A pump installed in the circuit provides the necessary fluid flow.

Such two-part Peltier cooling systems, as well as one-part systems, offer all the advantages of this technology: they can operate with cooling and/or heating, in extreme environmental conditions such as air laden with dust, salt mist, high ambient temperatures, or mechanical influences such as acceleration forces or vibrations.

Two-part Peltier systems, however, must always be designed individually to meet customer requirements and, therefore, are almost never standard devices.

Talk to Europeltier about it! We can develop your temperature management project from the initial fully free assessment to prototyping and mass production of your temperature control system.

#EUROPELTIER, #ThermalManagement, #Engineering, #Cooling, #Heating, #ThermalEngineering, #Thermodynamics, #ThermalEngineer, #Ventilation #Enclosures #ClimateControl #Ventilation #ClimateControl #Climatization