Variable Refrigerant Cooling Redundancy for Lower Energy Use
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current redundant air-cooling systems for electronic equipment face inefficiencies in energy usage and component lifespan, with lead-lag controllers failing to optimize system performance and energy efficiency, and potential failures from controller malfunctions compromising system reliability.
Innovation Solution
A redundant cooling system with multiple air-cooling units, each equipped with variable refrigerant flow and controlled by a communication bus to share operating conditions, optimizing energy consumption and lifespan by determining and maintaining an optimum operating point, and utilizing a backup power source to ensure continuous operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Duration of action of stationary object
If lead-lag controllers are used to alternate operation between active and standby cooling units, then the wear is distributed more evenly over the system life, but the energy efficiency is not optimized and the controller itself becomes a single point of failure
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts operating parameters (which units are active, power source selection) based on real-time conditions rather than following a fixed lead-lag pattern. This allows optimization of energy efficiency while still distributing wear across units through intelligent parameter selection.
Solution Approach 2:
Each cooling unit independently monitors its own status and can autonomously determine its operational state without relying on a central lead-lag controller. This eliminates the controller as a single point of failure while still achieving balanced wear distribution through decentralized decision-making.
2Reliability
If a simple redundant implementation with one active and one standby unit is used, then the system provides failsafe cooling, but the standby unit remains inactive causing uneven wear and suboptimal system life
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically switches between active and standby states based on real-time unit status and performance rather than maintaining a fixed active/standby assignment. This dynamic approach ensures failsafe operation while distributing wear more evenly across all units over time.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements periodic rotation of active and standby roles among cooling units, ensuring that no single unit remains continuously inactive. This periodic action maintains reliability through redundancy while preventing uneven wear that would reduce overall system life.
3Temperature
If the active cooling unit operates at lower temperature setpoint and standby unit at higher setpoint, then cooling effectiveness is optimized, but the standby unit with higher setpoint remains inactive until failure
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary warm-up or activation of standby units before they are truly needed, ensuring they are ready to take over immediately. This preliminary action maintains cooling effectiveness while ensuring reliable activation when units need to switch roles.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system achieves improved energy efficiency, extended component lifespan, and enhanced reliability by evenly distributing cooling loads and ensuring continuous operation, minimizing energy consumption and extending the life of cooling system components.
Implementation Method 1
a heat exchanger and fan for transferring heat from the air adjacent to the electronic equipment to be cooled to the refrigerant; a heat exchanger and fan for transferring heat from the refrigerant to air outside the space to be cooled
Implementation Method 2
Each of the plurality of air cooling units includes a compressor which can be controlled in such a way as to vary the refrigerant flowing in the circuit and hence control the cooling capacity of the unit
Data Source
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AI summary
A redundant cooling method and system are provided. The method comprises: providing a plurality of variable refrigerant flow air cooling units, wherein the number of air cooling units is at least one more than required to meet a selected maximum cooling load when operating the air cooling units at up to a maximum cooling capacity; coupling the plurality of variable refrigerant flow air cooling units in thermal communication with the air in a conditioned space; determining a select optimum operating condition for each of the plurality of variable refrigerant flow air cooling units which will result in about a lowest overall energy consumption for the redundant cooling system, while maintaining an average temperature of the air in the conditioned space at a required setpoint; and operating said plurality of air cooling units in about the select optimum operating conditions for each of the air cooling units.