Tag: hazloc

Elly De La Cruz HRs, Bark in the Park, and Cabinet Coolers: It’s Summer Time!

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment
My wife with the good boy, Rocky
Maci, the 450lb Chihuahua (or at least that’s what she thinks)

Last week the Cincinnati Reds held one of their “Bark in the Park” evenings where fans are encouraged to bring their four-legged friends along for a day at the ballpark. There were plenty of good boys and girls seated along the 1st-baseline, excited for the evening’s game. My wife and I have what is often referred to as a kennel back at home (3 dogs of our own and one rotating foster pup) and thought it was about time we took them down to a game.

Coinciding with this particular game was also the arrival of the “Red”-hot Elly De La Cruz making just his second start in the Majors. To anyone paying attention to baseball this summer, I’m sure you’ve seen highlights of the blazing fast, hard-hitting, hard-throwing, phenom from the Dominican Republic that the Reds finally called up from AAA. In his first at bat, he about knocked the ball clear out of the park (only to be held up by one fan and a silly chain-link fence). All-in-all it was a beautiful (hopefully one day historic) late-spring, early-summer evening. What better way to spend it than alongside a couple of our doggos.

When it’s baseball season, it’s getting warm here in the Northern Hemisphere. As temperatures increase, maintenance managers across the world shudder as they know their electrical panels aren’t ready for it. Fortunately, EXAIR has a line of Cabinet Coolers available to ship same-day from stock that’ll keep your cabinets cool and purged with clean, dry air.

Utilizing Vortex Tube technology, the EXAIR’s Cabinet Cooler produces cold air from an ordinary supply of compressed air. This cold air keeps the enclosure free of debris and moisture and is easily installed in minutes through a standard electrical knockout. Here is a short video that shows just how simple it really is. The Cabinet Cooler Systems are available with Nema 12 (IP54) ratings and are also available in Aluminum, 303 Stainless Steel, and 316 Stainless Steel construction for Nema 4/4X (IP66) rated enclosures. For systems that are not able to be mounted on top of the cabinet, we also have Side Mount Kits available in Aluminum, 303 Stainless, and 316 Stainless. This year, EXAIR has expanded from our line of Hazardous Location Cabinet Coolers and has also added ATEX Cabinet Coolers to our offering for customers that require ATEX compliance.  

These systems are available with cooling capacities of anywhere from 275-5,600 Btu/hr. To make things much easier for you, we offer a Cabinet Cooler Sizing Guide that will allow us to recommend the most suitable model for your cabinet. With a few quick measurements, we’ll be able to determine the exact heat load that we’ll need to dissipate and offer you a quick and easy solution. If you experienced heat related issues on electrical panels last year, contact an Application Engineer today, and we’ll see to it that this summer your cabinets remain cool!

Tyler Daniel, CCASS

Application Engineer

E-mail: TylerDaniel@EXAIR.com

Twitter: @EXAIR_TD

Choosing The Right Cabinet Cooler System

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

EXAIR Cabinet Cooler Systems provide heat protection for electrical enclosures, especially those in more “aggressive” environments. They’re durable & reliable, and unlike other devices (panel A/C, I’m looking at you), they’re impervious to environmental conditions and contamination…which they’ll also protect your electrical enclosures from. My colleague Jordan Shouse did a fabulous job of explaining how they work in a blog entitled (appropriately enough) “EXAIR Cabinet Cooler Systems – How Do they Work?” so I’ll get right to point of today’s blog, which is the selection process.

First, we need to calculate the heat load. If it’s for cooling a panel currently in operation, you need three things:

You’ll use the thermometer to “take the panel’s temperature”. See, we calculate the internal heat load (that’s the amount of heat generated by the components inside the panel) by using the difference between the internal air temperature, and the external air temperature. Since we’re essentially air conditioning the panel, it’s important to get air temperatures (from a thermometer) rather than surface temperatures (from a heat gun or similar instrument).

You won’t need the thermometer for this, but we’ll also need to know the maximum ambient temperature in the area where the panel is installed. This is to calculate the external heat load, and also determine if a High Temperature model is needed (more on that in a minute).

The tape measure is to get the length, width, and height of the panel. We also need to calculate the heat transfer surface area. A ruler or yardstick would work as well.

If there’s something cooling the panel already – whether it’s panel A/C, fan circulation of environmental air through the panel, etc. – we’ll need to know about that too, because you’ll be removing that for optimal performance of the Cabinet Cooler System.

Once you have all that, you can enter the data (and a few other things, which I’ll get to momentarily) at the above link to the Sizing Guide. If you’re a DIY type person (or control freak…no judgment from ME on that), there’s also a link there to our new Cabinet Cooler System Calculator. You can also print a copy of the Sizing Guide and email it or fax it in. Or…you can call me with the data. It only takes a minute to do the calculation, and we do it over the phone all the time.

Next, we need to know about the environment in which it’ll be installed, so we can specify certain parameters like:

  • NEMA rating. We make Cabinet Coolers for three distinct ratings, depending on the environment in which they’ll be installed.
    • NEMA 12 means it’s dust tight & oil tight, indoor duty. If no liquids or corrosives are present, this is probably what you’re looking for.
    • NEMA 4 means it’s dust tight, oil tight, splash resistant, indoor/outdoor duty. These have a low pressure relief valve for the Vortex Tube’s hot flow, and the exhaust from the panel, to maintain the splash resistant integrity of the panel.
    • NEMA 4X systems meet all requirements for a NEMA 4 rating, and are made of Type 303 Stainless Steel for corrosion resistance. We also make them in Type 316 Stainless Steel for higher levels of corrosion resistance, which is oftentimes specified in food and pharmaceutical environments.
  • Ambient temperature. If they’re going to be installed in areas where the temperature can exceed 125°F, there are some internal components made of plastic & buna that aren’t rated for that. In those cases, we specify a High Temperature Cabinet Cooler, where we replace those with components made of brass and Viton, respectively. Those are good for up to 200°F environments.
  • Atmospheric contaminants. All of our systems are, at a minimum, oil & dust tight per the above NEMA ratings. If a panel isn’t completely sealed – maybe there’s a cable bundle going through a loose grommet, or the door/front panel isn’t gasketed – then airborne stuff that you ideally want to keep away from sensitive electrical/electronic gear can still make it in. For those, we have two options:
    • Continuous operating systems will provide cold air flow for cooling and positive purge as long as compressed air is flowing to the Cabinet Cooler. That’ll keep the bad stuff out, but it’ll also get your panel colder than it needs to be, and you’ll pay for that with the increased cost of the full rated compressed air flow.
    • Non-Hazardous Purge systems allow Thermostat Control to turn off the compressed air flow when it’s not needed, and still pass 1 SCFM through the Cabinet Cooler (instead of full flow) when the internal temperature is at or below the Thermostat setpoint. These cost considerably less to run than Continuous Operation systems.
  • Thermostat Control. Agencies like Compressed Air Best Practices and the Compressed Air Challenge include panel cooling on their list of inappropriate uses of compressed air – EXCEPT when they’re thermostat controlled. EXAIR uses Solenoid Valves operated by bimetallic thermoswitches with superior response times, so the Cabinet Cooler doesn’t continue running once it’s cooled the panel to the setpoint temperature, and (more importantly) comes on as soon as the temperature rises above that setpoint to further guard against heat damage. They’re available in 120VAC, 240VAC, and 24VDC options.
The Thermostat’s (left) leads are spliced into the Solenoid Valve’s (bottom right) ‘hot’ lead, which essentially makes it an automatic temperature controlled ‘on/off’ switch for the Cabinet Cooler System. NEMA 4/4X versions include mounting hardware (top right).
  • Thermostat Control part 2. There are situations where the ability to change the regulated temperature is desirable. While the Thermostat’s setpoint can be changed, EXAIR’s ETC Electronic Temperature Control allows you to change it, at the push of a button. It also gives a continuous display of the actual temperature inside the panel that can alert operators to a potential overheating situation before the alarms start going off, or, if there are no alrms, before all those expensive electronic devices start to fry.
ETC Electronic Temperature Control can be used in a wide variety of applications.

EXAIR’s Cabinet Cooler Promotion also started June 1st if you’re interested in purchasing one for your process. For a limited time, you can order any of EXAIR’s Cabinet Cooler® Systems and get a FREE AC Sensor with purchase! Check it out here.

If you’d like to discuss the ease at which you can provide safe, effective, and reliable heat protection for electrical panels in almost any environment, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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NEMA/UL and IP ratings

Published on by John BallLeave a comment
From right to left: Small NEMA 12, Large NEMA 12, Large NEMA 4X

EXAIR manufactures Cabinet Coolers to keep your electrical components inside cool.  This will help to stop any costly shutdowns or premature electrical failures due to overheating.  The EXAIR Cabinet Cooler System is a simple device that generates cold air with no moving parts, condensers, or freon.  They are maintenance-free with a long-life cycle; and installation is quick and easy.  But when mounting the system to your electrical panel, you want to make sure that the Cabinet Cooler meets or exceeds the integrity standard for that environment.  There are standards that categorize electrical panels to protect workers, shield the environment, and contain the electrical components. 

Electrical panels come in all shapes, sizes and colors; and can be used in a variety of environments; indoor, outdoor, and even hazardous locations.  Depending on the place and setting, you will need to determine the minimum requirements for the integrity of your electrical panel.  For example, you do not want to use an “indoor only” electrical enclosure for outside areas.  Also, you would not want a standard enclosure to be used in a hazardous area, as it can be very dangerous.  The major organizations that create these electrical standards are NEMA, UL, and IP.  In this blog, I will cover these organizations and how they rate them.

NEMA, or National Electrical Manufacturer Association, and UL, or Underwriters Laboratory, are generally used in North America.  The difference between these two organizations is that the NEMA ratings are self-certifying while the UL requires testing by qualified inspectors, independent of the manufacturer, for compliance.  They use numbers and in some instances letters to indicate the type of environment that the enclosure can operate. EXAIR Cabinet Cooler Systems are UL listed; so, they have been tested and verified.  Currently, there are over 20 different NEMA/UL classifications.  Here is a description by WIKA that shows the different categories for both NEMA and IP.

IP, or Ingress Protection, is an international standard commonly used in Europe and is established by the International Electrotechnical Commission, or IEC.  This organization also allows for self-certification.  They use two digits to define levels of integrity for electrical enclosures against intrusion from foreign bodies and moisture. The first digit ranges from 1 to 6 which specifies the protection rating from solids.  The second digit, which ranges from 1 to 8, specifies the protection rating for ingress of water.  The higher the number, the better the protection.  The combination of these two numbers will give the protection level of the enclosure against dust and water.  There is an equivalence with the NEMA ratings to the IP ratings, but it is up to the preference of the user to verify the protection requirement. 

EXAIR offers three main NEMA types for our Cabinet Cooler Systems which are the most commonly found within facilities. We also offer an additional two types that are designated strictly for Hazardous Locations and are separately certified by UL to meet those standards.

NEMA 12

NEMA 12 (IP54) Cabinet Coolers are rated for dust tight and oil tight. NEMA 12 cabinet coolers are ideal for general industrial environments where no liquids or corrosives are present and are located inside.

NEMA 4

NEMA 4 (IP66) Cabinet Coolers are rated for dust tight, oil tight, splash resistant and indoor/outdoor service. These Cabinet Coolers incorporate a low-pressure relief valve to allow the internal hot air to escape as well as to close and seal when the cooler is not in operation.  This allows for this Cabinet Cooler to maintain the integrity of a NEMA 4 enclosure.

NEMA 4X

NEMA 4X (IP66) Cabinet Coolers offer the same protection as the NEMA 4 but are constructed of stainless steel for food service and corrosive environments.

HazLoc Cabinet Cooler Systems

HazLoc Cabinet Coolers are designed for hazardous locations and are mounted to NEMA 7, 8, and 9 enclosures.  EXAIR catalogs these Cabinet Coolers as NEMA 4 (IP66) or NEMA 4X (IP66) as mentioned above.  But their registration by UL classified is for Class I, Class II, and Class III hazardous areas.  The reason that they do not match the NEMA rating of the hazardous panels is because they require an X-type or Z-type purge system.  In combination, they will not sacrifice the integrity of hazardous electrical panels. 

EXAIR has Cabinet Coolers in stock with a variety of cooling capacities from 275 BTU/hr to 5,600 BTU/hr (69 Kcal/hr to 1,411 Kcal/hr).  We also offer them in 316SS, high temperature versions, and non-hazardous purge.  We do have a Cabinet Cooler System Calculator to help determine the best product for your application.  If you have any additional questions, an Application Engineer at EXAIR can assist you.   

John Ball
Application Engineer
Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb

Hazardous Location Cabinet Cooler Systems “Make Things Better”

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

In a previous arc in my career path, I worked on, and then built, and then sold industrial pumps, so I’ve been in my fair share of chemical plants. Did you ever wonder what all these places make? A decent number of them make what are called “intermediates”. These are compounds, solutions, & substances that aren’t found in stores, but go into almost all of the goods that ARE found in stores. One such company used to make commercials that explained it nicely:

I recently had the pleasure of assisting a caller from a company like this, who wanted to install three of our Hazardous Location Cabinet Cooler Systems in their facility. This particular company doesn’t make anything shown in the commercial above; they make intermediates for agricultural use (to paraphrase the commercial, “they don’t make fertilizer; they make fertilizer better”). As is the case in MANY chemical plants, a good portion of their real estate is classified as hazardous area (as defined by regulatory oversight agencies) AND subject to exposure to some fairly corrosive chemicals. Now, these places all go to great lengths to ensure safety for personnel AND equipment, through compliance AND design. So, when they needed to add durable & reliable heat protection to their electrical panels, they called EXAIR.

This was a pretty easy application, as the engineer I spoke to had gotten the internal heat loads from the equipment supplier, and already knew that 316SS construction was needed for the corrosive elements the equipment could be exposed to. The panel was in a Class I Div 2 area (flammable gasses or vapors may be present in the event of an accident or during unusual operating conditions). After calculating the external heat load, we specified a Model HZ4725SS-316 NEMA 4X (316SS Construction) Hazardous Location Cabinet Cooler System, rated for 1,700 Btu/hr, and Model 902021 24VDC HazLoc Solenoid Valve. These panels came equipped with temperature monitors that they could wire our valves into, otherwise we’d have supplied Thermostat Controlled systems.

EXAIR HazLoc Cabinet Cooler Systems are rated for Class I Div 1 & 2, Class II Div 1 & 2, and Class III environments.

EXAIR Cabinet Cooler Systems are available, from stock, to suit most any electric/electronic panel heat protection need:

  • Cooling capacities from 275 to 5,600 Btu/hr. Call me if your heat load is outside this range…we can look at customized solutions too.
  • NEMA 12 (IP54), 4, or 4X (IP66) ratings.
  • Thermostat Control – Standard, or Electronic Temperature Control.
  • Non-Hazardous Purge for contaminant exclusion on less-than-ideally sealed enclosures.
  • High Temperature models for ambient temperatures from 125°F (52°C) to 200°F (93°C).
  • Side Mount Kits when space is limited above the panel.
  • 316SS construction for particularly aggressive environments.
  • UL Classified for hazardous locations, just like the one I wrote about above.

If you’d like to find out how easy it is to provide durable and reliable heat protection for your electrical panels, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
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