Continuous cooling capacity regulation using supplemental heating

Abstract

A method of providing variable cooling includes operating a cooling element to cool an air flow by a first cooling capacity, operating a heating element to heat the air flow by a first heating capacity that adjusts the first cooling capacity towards a first desired total cooling capacity, determining a second desired total cooling capacity, controlling the cooling element to cool the air flow by a second cooling capacity that is greater than the second desired total cooling capacity, and controlling the heating element to heat the air flow by a second heating capacity that adjusts the second cooling capacity towards the second desired total cooling capacity. Further embodiments and cooling systems are also disclosed.

Description

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION[0001]1. Field of Invention[0002]Embodiments of the invention relate generally to devices and methods for cooling electronic equipment. Specifically, aspects of the invention relate to methods of providing variable cooling capacity to electronic equipment by supplementing a cooling device with a heating device.[0003]2. Discussion of Related Art[0004]Heat produced by electronic equipment can have adverse effects on the performance, reliability and useful life of the equipment. Over the years as electronic equipment becomes faster, smaller, and more power consuming, such equipment also produces more heat, making control of heat more critical to reliable operation.[0005]A typical environment where heat control may be critical includes a data center containing racks of electronic equipment, such as servers and CPUs. As demand for processing power has increased, data centers have increased in size so that a typical data center may now contain hundreds of such racks...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0014]One aspect of the invention includes a cooling system. In some embodiments, the cooling system comprises a cooling element configured to cool a fluid flow by a variable cooling capacity to lower a temperature of the fluid flow, a heating element configured to heat the fluid flow by a v

Problems solved by technology

Heat produced by electronic equipment can have adverse effects on the performance, reliability and useful life of the equipment.

Furthermore, as the size of electronic equipment has decreased, the amount of electronic equipment in each rack and power consumption of the equipment has increased.

Compressors may be limited in operation to a set of discrete speeds or a range of variable speeds that correspond to cooling capacities of the cooling device.

Operation of such variable compressors below the minimum threshold level may result in compressor failure due to motor burnout, burning of bearings, and / or overheating.

Some compressors may be further limited in their variability to a limited number of compressor speed changes over a period of time.

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