Autumn is here! … time to reflect

In this article, Karl Lycett, Rittal UK’s product manager for Climate Control, contemplates what the changing season might hold in store

Finally, the temperature seems to be reducing to a more bearable level, the nights are slowly drawing in and... do I see a hint of colour change in the trees? That’s right, autumn is upon us once again and that can only mean one thing – it’s time to stop, look back at the summer period and understand how things went. Did you see:

• Electrical equipment under stress?
• Unexpected breakdowns?
• Emergency repairs needed on critical equipment?

If any of this sounds familiar or has happened to you, now is the perfect time to put plans into place to make your life easier when next summer hits.

Servicing, upgrading or even specifying some brand-new climate control to protect your equipment is one of the most effective ways of creating a protective environment for your sensitive electrical equipment within your enclosures and ensuring it lasts for many summers to come.

Big opportunity, small improvements

Even if your cooling equipment is up to date, there is always an opportunity to make small improvements which will increase your overall efficiency. A great example is the implementation of Industry 4.0 principles. Simply put, this is taking any data generated by cooling equipment and allowing it to be directly reported into your building management systems or straight to the relevant person in charge of managing the health of your electrical equipment.

This reduces the need for the daily walk round with a clipboard, making notes of any issues. This old-style approach can result in things being missed and breakdowns occurring unexpectedly. However, with solutions now available, you can choose to have emails sent directly to key personnel whenever limits have been reached and warning flags are showing. This means staff are utilised more efficiently and can be safe in the knowledge that they will be notified, if any issues begin to arise.

Now, never fear – we know that your sole focus doesn’t lie with climate control. You have more important things to worry about, mainly keeping your business up and running and producing for your customers.

Taking control with various themes

That is where Rittal is here to help. Over the next three months, we are going to cover a different theme related to climate control, but with the focus on how you can utilise this information to get the most out of your equipment by creating that protective environment and allowing it to thrive and stay healthy. This takes the workload off you when the temperature starts to rise again and allows you to concentrate on more important matters on site, while in the back of your mind knowing you have implemented systems to keep your equipment chugging along.

The additional benefits of undertaking this action are the reduction in energy usage and costs related to the replacement of spare parts etc. If items are tripping out every year, this causes a high level of wear on components, which can result in more orders being produced to replace burnt-out cards etc. All of these small changes are going to impact your bottom line and overall efficiency.

The next three months’ topics are going to be as follows, with different media every week to support the overarching theme:

• September: The Fundamentals of Cooling
• October: Service & Maintenance of Cooling Equipment
• November: Focus on Cooling Industry

If you feel like any of the topics mentioned above would be of benefit to you, then keep your eyes peeled on our social channels for the contact to begin rolling in September.