Blowers and fans are used in electronic printed circuit boards, as well as other places, to generate more airflow across devices, which are sensitive to increases in temperatures. Due to the amount of heat an electronic device can potentially produce, especially when in confined spaces, where natural airflow is not sufficient to maintain proper operating temperatures of the electronics. Blowers and fans are used to induce air flow and create an air cooling effect for the electronic devices that are generating heat, and also sensitive to increases in temperature.

Due to the amount of computing power found in most desktop style computers, heat is easily generated and often becomes a primary concern for the overall stability and operation of the electrical system.  In fact, for some systems, blowers and fans, which generated air, cooled effects, are simply not sufficient, and cannot keep up with the amount of heat load generated. For systems where this is the case – water-cooled systems are required to maintain safe operating conditions for the electrical components. These systems are usually found in large supercomputers and also are found in most server farms.

For most applications blowers and fans suffice. It is also interesting to note, that more and more mobile computing systems are trying to design their systems, so they are power efficient and don’t generate as much heat as older systems. This provides a benefit to the network, as now almost all mobile systems have omitted the use of fans and blowers. By designing more power efficient systems, it now extends the battery life, as it is not required to burn battery power by running blowers and fans.