It was identified on an offshore facility in a particularly warm climate that during shutdown of platform power generation, following gas detection, the associated room central cooling equipment would stop, which would cause the required minimal safety controls’ electronic hardware housed in rooms to operate on UPS battery power. The heat from the safety equipment in the various uncooled rooms would soon further increase the room temperature to above the maximum rating of the safety equipment design in a short time, and likely cause malfunctions before the various safety, mustering and evacuations could take place.
Therefore, local battery-powered cooling units were developed to allow the safety electronic equipment to operate for at least one hour. This required that cooling units be developed that could be powered from a UPS system. The challenge was to limit the maximum rating of the UPS inverter which would be impacted by the cooling unit compressor starting current.
Nucore successfully achieved this by utilising multiple sequence-controlled small compressors, each with soft starters. This design offered significant reduction in UPS inverter size while working with the client to help facilitate the review and prioritisation of its UPS-backed critical systems.
This direct expansion (DX) cooling system can typically be run from emergency back-up battery power, or in environments where renewable energy generation is the primary source of power. The system can be applied where climate control and operating temperatures are vital for ongoing operations in environments where power consumption is critical. The system is designed for harsh external environments and suitable for use in marine atmospheres with an external operating temperature of up to +50°C.
The internal evaporator is typically available in standard 9kW cooling duty.
The system features a variety of innovations and features, including a staged, soft start sequencing that enables the system to start on just 25% of the normal Locked Rotor Amps (LRA) of standard DX systems of this type. The multiple motors within the system are operated through a sequenced system which prevents multiple motors from simultaneous starting and creating a peak load scenario.
It can be supplied in wall-mount, under-ceiling or ceiling-cassette configuration to suit a variety of layouts.
In other news, the Aberdeen-headquartered company has completed a restructure and refinancing deal which has attracted fresh investment to pursue its growth strategy. With the continued support of Beechbrook Capital, the specialist engineering company has created 17 new jobs in recent months, including apprenticeships and graduate roles and is opening a new office in Dundee.