HVAC, Fans & Thermal Management

What is HVAC?

It is an acronym which stands for Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning. It covers all the elements required to control the temperature and quality of the air within a building or vehicle.

What are the main elements within a HVAC System?

• Heating through the use of radiators, boilers, heat pumps and other heating elements.
• Cooling most often referred to as air conditioning which uses expansion and contraction to lower the temperature.
• Ventilation through the use of fans, ducting and filters to move air around the building or vehicle and exchange with outside air.

What is Thermal Management?

Thermal management uses passive or active methods to keep machinery, equipment, electronics, batteries and other devices within a specified temperature range.

Passive methods simply attach to the device or machine and work through natural radiation, convection or conduction. These include heat sinks, cold plates and heat pipes.

Active methods use another device to speed up the cooling such as a fan or pump.

Thermal management is a key element within electronic design and keeping components cool is a key consideration. Over-heating is one of the primary causes of malfunction of modern devices. For example, modern computers will generally use both active and passive cooling methods with a heat sink and fan on the processor to provide the necessary cooling.

Here at RS, we have a wide range of HVAC and thermal management solutions in stock to suit your needs.