Whether you’re a fan of hot temperatures and humid conditions or not, one thing is for certain. Summer is right around the corner for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. As a pool owner, this is my favorite time of year. Not only is it much more pleasant to look at once it’s opened, but there’s nothing better than coming home from work after a long day and just jumping right in for an evening swim. While the temperatures begin to heat up, this can be a problem for the sensitive electronics located in control panels throughout your facility.
One solution for keeping the panel cool is an A/C refrigerant-based cooling system. While these can work to keep the conditions cool inside the panel, they come with their own set of maintenance issues and added costs. Some of these aren’t always readily apparent when you’re looking to solve a problem stemming from a heat-related shutdown. You need a solution, and you need it FAST. Installing a refrigerant-based panel cooler is going to take a MINIMUM of 3 hours and oftentimes an entire shift to complete. This means that you’re going to be subjected to additional downtime before you’re back up and running smoothly. In comparison, EXAIR’s Cabinet Cooler Systems are on the shelf, in stock, and installed in an hour or less. We ship same-day for stock products with orders in by 2:00 ET, you can have one in your hands as soon as tomorrow.
Installation is merely one part of the equation. I don’t know about you, but I certainly wouldn’t consider the ambient environment in a manufacturing plant to be inherently “clean”. That is unless we’re inside of a cleanroom type of environment. Generally speaking, air throughout an industrial facility is riddled with dirt, dust, and even oil. A/C panel coolers do have to draw in ambient air which means these filters can become clogged, restricting airflow and preventing the unit from operating at peak capacity. In many cases, it’s not discovered that the filters are clogged until AFTER the alarms have sounded and your panel is overheating. Maintenance is going to be necessary for any A/C panel cooler installed in an industrial facility.
This maintenance doesn’t stop just at the filters. It’s reasonable to consider around 4 hours of time per quarter cleaning/replacing filters, changing refrigerant, checking for leaks, etc. While this maintenance is performed, the systems have to be shut down and locked/tagged out. Not only is downtime required to install, but there will also be downtime associated with the regular maintenance necessary for these systems to operate effectively.
EXAIR’s Cabinet Cooler systems have absolutely NO maintenance required when supplied with clean, dry air (a suitably sized filter is included in our Cabinet Cooler system kits). Once they’re installed, they’ll operate darn near forever without any intervention at all. In fact, we’ve come across Cabinet Cooler systems that have been out in the field operating for 20+ years without a problem.
Cabinet Cooler systems were designed specifically for operating in the harshest of conditions where A/C systems will be problematic. Thermostatically controlled systems are available to ensure that you’ll maintain the desired internal temperature of the panel without using any unnecessary compressed air. High Temperature Cabinet Cooler systems are also available for applications where ambient conditions could be higher than 125°F. Refrigerant-based panel coolers must be de-rated by 65% at 90°F and by 95% at 115°F, meaning they’ll need to either be oversized or operate longer to match the performance from a similarly sized Cabinet Cooler system.
Do yourself a favor and check out EXAIR’s NEW Cabinet Cooler Calculator to see what system we’d recommend for your given conditions. It’s ready to ship out to you today. Give us a call to get one on order before you experience heat-related shutdowns, NOT after!
Tyler Daniel
Application Engineer
E-mail: TylerDaniel@EXAIR.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_TD