HeatRise

Electrical enclosure thermal calculator

24-hour thermal profile

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia · 2026-08-26 · modelled clear-sky

Over target
Peak internal
81.6°C
Peak external
41.2°C
Peak rise
40.6K
Above target
24.0h

Peak internal at 14:00. Sol-air is the equivalent outdoor temperature including solar on the shell.

Heat balance (last 24 h)

Internal load
6,000 Wh
Solar on shell
1,493 Wh
Through glazing
0 Wh
Adjacent heat
0 Wh
Through walls
5,775 Wh
Ventilation
225 Wh
Effective UA
6.6 W/K
Effective fan flow
0 m³/h

To hold 40 °C

Clean filter-fan flow of about 733 m³/h, or a closed-loop cooler of about 348 W.

Outdoor dusty sites often need a cooler, not open filter fans.

  • Above 40 °C most VFDs and power supplies start derating. Set a drive type to see current remaining.

Direct sun · sealed / natural

How this is calculated

Two-day lumped transient for a 1-day study (the settle day is discarded so thermal mass has come to periodic state). 3- and 7-day runs keep repeating the selected day’s weather after one settle day — add a heatwave overlay to lift every dry-bulb hour. Walls use a U-value from inside film, conduction through the stated thickness, and outside film plus radiation. Effective area follows IEC 60890 exposure factors.

Opaque solar is a sol-air temperature on each exposed face. Door glazing is an internal source (SHGC × front irradiance × area). Filter fans remove heat as ρ·cp·V̇·ΔT on outdoor dry-bulb, with clean / in-service / dirty flow derate. Mixing fans only raise the inside film coefficient. Adjacent heat is a constant internal wattage.

Connected load is dissipated heat, not nameplate kW. Drive derating uses typical catalogue slopes (ATV600, generic VFD, PSU, PLC). The design note is a verification aid under IEC 60890 / IEC 61439-1 / AS/NZS 61439.1 — not a type test.