By Miles Nicholson
The accumulation of heat in an enclosure is potentially damaging to electrical and electronic devices. Overheating within the enclosure can shorten the lifespan of expensive components, de-rate components or lead to catastrophic failure of equipment with some components having their life expectancy reduced by 50%.
There are a few heat dissipation calculation tools available on the market rather than you have to work out yourselves. The following is a selection but is certainly not limited to and therefore is not a definitive list:
Some of the tools are limited to components from the one specific manufacturer whereas other tools allow you to enter product data from other manufacturers.
Most of the utilities are available for both download and online.