Rittal presents the new generation of cooling units Blue e+

According to estimations, there are around two million enclosure climate control units connected to electricity grids throughout Europe. With a total assumed connected load of 2 Terawatt (an average 1 kW per unit), this represents an economically relevant consumption potential, responsible for approx. four million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. The goal of Rittal, worldwide leading provider of enclosure cooling systems is to cut the power consumption of cooling units to make a major contribution to climate protection and respond to rising energy prices.

Energy savings up to 75% in tests

“To increase energy efficiency significantly, Rittal is implementing an innovative patented hybrid process for its new “Blue e+” generation of cooling units for the first time”, said Steffen Wagner, Rittal''s Head of Climate Control Product Management. These units employ a combination of a compressor cooling device and a heat pipe, which ensures passive cooling. The compressor is only used when the passive cooling is no longer sufficient.

The control strategy for hybrid operation is a factor that has significant influence on the huge efficiency gains. This is optimized for energy efficiency in part-load operation. It means that the “Blue e+” unit is six times more efficient than a conventional cooling unit at a part-load of 15% in pure heat-pipe mode. At a part-load of 65%, both systems operate in hybrid mode, in other words, four times more efficiently than a conventional unit.

The energy efficiency of the pure compressor cooling of the new series of units is also very high. DC motors are used with both the fans and the compressor. Thanks to the inverter technology, with which the compressor and fan speeds can be adjusted via a voltage control system, the cooling output provided is always exactly the amount needed at the time. Energy consumption is thus far less than with conventional technology. “Thanks to the high energy efficiency of new cooling units, savings of up to 75% are possible – as initial test results show”, Steffen Wagner pointed out.

Multi-voltage input for the grids

However, with this innovation, particular attention has also been paid to other aspects of cost-effectiveness. For instance, all the units can be operated flexibly, thanks to the patented multi-voltage capability in all standard grids worldwide. Possible input voltages range from 110 V (single phase) to 480 V (three-phase) at grid frequencies of 50 or 60 Hz. The lower logistics costs represent one major advantage that will benefit global mechanical engineers in particular. The cooling unit is always the same, no matter whether the machine is being sold within Europe or exported to Japan or the USA. This not only means a considerable reduction in the number of device variants, but also to a great simplification of spare parts logistics.

Superior process reliability

Power-controlled cooling eliminates thermal stress for all the components in the enclosure. Constant temperature fluctuations, such as in the conventional two-point control systems are now a thing of the past. This not only increases the service life of the cooling units and enclosure components, it also means higher process reliability.

The Blue e+ cooling units cover a power range of up to 6,000 watts (previously up to 4,000 Watts) and so can be used at temperatures ranging from -30°C to +60°C.

Easy handling for faster service

The TFT display on the front provides all the relevant information at a glance. System messages appear as plain text and are multi-lingual. Standardised communication interfaces ensure easy integration in a production plant''s control systems. Moreover, a variety of protocols such as CAN bus or Modbus TCP permit real time data transfer via the CAN or Ethernet interface. The near-field-communication (NFC) interface permits the simple parameterisation of multiple cooling units via an NFC-enabled mobile device.