Heat exchange – Structural installation – Related to wall – floor or ceiling structure of a chamber
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-08
2001-01-09
Lazarus, Ira S. (Department: 3743)
Heat exchange
Structural installation
Related to wall, floor or ceiling structure of a chamber
C165S047000, C165S168000, C165S049000, C165S010000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06170561
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to heat absorbent devices for passive cooling and heating.
2. Prior Art
Many large businesses have critical operations rooms that house information technology systems and equipment essential for conducting business. Examples of critical operations rooms include data centers, call centers, LAN, WAN, file server, hub, switch, and network rooms. Such rooms are filled with heat-generating electronic equipment, so that they must be cooled at all times. In high rise commercial buildings, cooling is primarily provided by base-building cooling systems. Critical operations rooms are typically cooled by supplemental cooling systems which are operated 24 hours a day. However, base-building and supplemental cooling systems are both dependent on the same electrical, mechanical, and plumbing systems of the building. In the event of a building electrical or plumbing system failure, both cooling systems will also fail. Without cooling, rapid heat buildup in critical operations rooms may cause equipment overheating and failure in about 15 minutes, which may result in serious business consequences.
The risk of cooling system failure can be reduced by using backup systems, such as redundant cooling systems, uninterruptable power supplies, and power generators. However, these backup systems are expensive to implement, and are still susceptible to electrical, plumbing, or mechanical failure. Without a backup system, two options are available in the event of a cooling system failure: the first is to repair the cooling system or to provide temporary cooling, such as opening doors or adding portable air conditioners; the second is to shut down the equipment in the critical operations room before they fail from overheating. In either case, the key element in preventing equipment overheating is time.
Phase change materials are known to be usable for absorbing solar heat in the day and releasing it at night for heating a building. A heat absorbing panel disclosed U.S. Pat. No. 4,178,727 to Prusinski et al. is comprised of a hollow panel filled with a heat absorbing material. The panel is usable as a ceiling tile or floor tile for passive heating or cooling. However, the panel design does not address retrofit into conventional ceiling grid systems. Its design does not take into account weight limitations and the leak resistant durability necessary to withstand periodical removal and handling for the continual maintenance and upgrade work inherent in critical operations rooms. In addition, its design does not account for panel penetration by sprinkler heads, smoke detectors and other critical operations room support devices that drop below the ceiling plane.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, objects of the present heat absorbent device are:
to provide backup cooling in a critical operations room during cooling system failure for providing time to repair the cooling system or shut down the equipment;
to cool the room long enough for cooling system repair or equipment shutdown;
to be suitable for mounting on different types of structures in a room;
to be inexpensive and easy to install; and
to be installable without reducing the usable floor area in a room.
Further objects of the present invention will become apparent from a consideration of the drawings and ensuing description.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A heat absorbent device is comprised of a container filled with a phase change material selected to melt at about 75° F. It is arranged to be installed in a room with business critical electronics equipment that requires constant cooling by a cooling system, typically, to about 72° F. In some embodiments, the container is comprised of a container for attaching to a T-rail of a ceiling tile system. In another embodiment, the container is comprised of a container with hooks for attaching to holes on computer cabinets. In yet another embodiment, the container is comprised of a ceiling tile with a plurality of individually sealed cells containing the phase change material. In the event of a cooling system failure and rapidly rising room temperature, the phase change material will begin absorbing heat and cooling the room when the room temperature has reached its melting point. Without the heat absorbent device, an exemplar equipment room with about 35 W/ft
2
heat production will reach an equipment failure temperature of 120° F. in about 15 minutes. With enough heat absorbent devices providing about 500 ml/ft
2
of a 430 J/ml phase change material, temperature rise is slowed enough to delay equipment failure by an additional 50 minutes, which may be enough for repairing the cooling system or shutting down the equipment.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3743782 (1973-07-01), Laing
patent: 4388963 (1983-06-01), Campbell
patent: 4683941 (1987-08-01), Timmer et al.
patent: 5042570 (1991-08-01), Schmitt-Raiser et al.
patent: 5263538 (1993-11-01), Amidieu et al.
patent: 5513696 (1996-05-01), Baer
patent: 5609200 (1997-03-01), Harrison
patent: 5632327 (1997-05-01), Andersson
patent: 951956 (1956-08-01), None
Duong Tho
Lazarus Ira S.
Lo Jack
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