Patent ID: 7788940

Claim:
An electronic equipment cabinet, comprising: a cabinet configured to operatively house a plurality of electronic equipment, at least a portion of a primary cooling system and a backup cooling system, the cabinet securable against unwanted access to the electronic equipment; the primary cooling system comprising: a compressor; an evaporator within the cabinet; at least one fan within the cabinet for moving air along a primary cooling flow path through the evaporator and across the electronic equipment; a condenser; and a refrigerant, all operatively coupled in closed-loop fashion and configured to reject heat from within the cabinet to outside the cabinet; the backup cooling system comprising: at least one backup cooling damper associated with the cabinet and configured to seal against ambient air flow there through during operation of the primary cooling system and to automatically open upon a cooling related failure in the primary cooling system; and a control system configured to, upon the cooling related failure, open the damper and energize the at least one evaporator fan thereby drawing ambient air from outside the cabinet through the damper and into the cabinet along a backup cooling path to cool the electronic components; wherein the backup cooling damper closes off the evaporator so that the backup cooling air flow path within the cabinet comprises flowing air across the electronic components but not through the evaporator.