Low Energy Cooling for Digital Telecommunications Systems

The development of digital telecommunications switching equipment with its lower power per Erlang of traffic and its more constant power requirement at a time of increasing energy shortage has created the need to re-consider conventional cooling practices and to examine other less conventional methods. This paper describes current telephone exchange cooling practices, the environmental requirements and behaviour of digital switching equipment and the means of reducing cooling energy. Some energy recovery and storage methods are also discussed of which at least one could have beneficial effects for the future.