Transportable, environmentally-controlled equipment enclosure

Abstract

A transportable environmentally controlled equipment enclosure (TECEE), or other equipment enclosure of the type containing racks of heat-generating equipment, may include a pump-less heat pipe cooling system to carry heat away from the equipment, an improved equipment rack system that includes a suspended base supported by rails with multiple latching and / or locking positions, and various improvements related to power distribution, equipment access, internal and external communications, and safety.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Field of the Invention[0002]The invention relates to improvements to a Transportable Environmentally Controlled Equipment Enclosure (TECEE) or other equipment enclosure of the type containing racks of heat-generating equipment. By way of example and not limitation, the equipment may be computing equipment and the equipment enclosure may be part of a modular and / or containerized “data center.” Alternatively, the equipment may be ground support, tracking, or communications equipment, or any other equipment requiring a transportable, environmentally controlled enclosure.[0003]The improvements include use of a pump-less heat pipe cooling system to carry heat away from the equipment, an improved equipment rack system that includes a suspended base supported by rails with multiple latching and / or locking positions, and various improvements related to power distribution, equipment access, internal and external communications, and safety.[0004]2. Descript...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent text describes a coolant system for a container where a coolant reservoir is placed close to the ceiling. The coolant is collected from the main condenser and supplied to a manifold and rack evaporators to keep them always flooded with refrigerant. This system eliminates the need for pumps at each rack. The technical effect of this system is to improve the efficiency of the cooling process and save energy by reducing the use of pumps.

Problems solved by technology

A current issue at equipment sites is power consumption.

Most existing “brick and mortar” sites run out of power capacity long before they reach maximum equipment density.

Even though TECEEs can be maintained at a higher temperature than conventional fixed equipment housing structures, power consumption by the cooling system is still a significant issue, and thus much of the prior art has focused on cooling system improvements.

In either of the known pump-based cooling arrangements, however, the pumps are significant source of power consumption and add to the installation and maintenance costs of the TECEE.

Additional problems of conventional TECEEs include problems related to equipment mounting, such as the problem of allowing access to the equipment and / or securing the equipment for transport without complicating connection / disconnection of equipment to the power supply and cooling system, the problem of providing a power back-up or redundancy to ensure an adequate power supply, and safety issues.

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