T 1.7 Inadmissible temperature and humidity
Every device has a defined temperature range within which its proper functioning is guaranteed. A rise or fall in the room temperature to a value outside that range could result in operational malfunctions or equipment failures.
For example, the equipment located in a server room converts electrical energy to heat, causing the temperature in the room to rise. If the ventilation is inadequate, the operating temperature of the devices may exceed the permissible upper limit. When the sun is shining into a room, it is possible for the temperature in the room to exceed 50°C.
The windows in a server room are frequently opened for ventilation purposes. During seasons in which the outside temperature varies greatly (in the spring or autumn), open windows can cause large temperature fluctuations, and humidity levels may exceed the permissible upper limit due to the sudden drop in temperature.
Excessive fluctuations in temperature or excessive humidity in areas where long-term digital storage media are stored can cause data errors and reduce the useful storage life of the media. Some manufacturers specify optimal storage conditions for long-term storage media with temperatures of 20-22ºC and 40% humidity. Even analogue storage media such as paper or microfilm require certain storage conditions. For example, if paper is stored at a location where the humidity is too high, the paper may become mouldy or brittle.
Example:
- In a government agency in Bonn, the entire control and evaluation electronics of a security system were installed in a room in which there was only just enough space left after installation to open the doors of the equipment cabinets. For security reasons, the doors to both the cabinets and the room were solid doors.
- The system functioned smoothly after installation was complete in the autumn, but the following summer, inexplicable malfunctions occurred. These were soon followed by total system crashes for which there was no obvious cause. Several days of troubleshooting, involving a lot of time and effort in terms of technology and manpower and carried out with the doors open, yielded no results. It was only by accident that the cause of the problems, the overheating of the system whenever the outside temperature rose above 30°C, was finally identified, and the problems were successfully eliminated by installing an air conditioning system.