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Passive laptop cooling

  • March 2, 2007

From Annex 17: Advanced Thermal Energy Storage through Phase Change Materials and Chemical Reactions

The cooling system of a lap top is different for different brands of computers. In common for most of the lap top computers is that a fan starts to operate at high temperatures of the central process unit (CPU) or at special activities. If the CPU of the computer becomes too warm the capacity of the computer goes down.

A sheet of phase change material (PCM) placed under the computer will help in cooling the computer. The “storage” will be regenerated on shut down of the computer since the room temperature is lower than the melting point of the PCM.

The results are:

  • The time before the fan starts is increased from 20 minutes from start of the computer to 4 hours.
  • The energy consumption is reduced by 25% allowing a longer battery operation of the computer.
  • The life time of the computer (the CPU) is believed to increase due to lower temperature
  • The LapTop Cooler will now be marketed by DABU, a retailer for computer accessories with shops in 15 countries.