Putting in computer in a garage/outhouse

[Sonars_UK]

Hi

Our second baby has just been born and he will soon be moving into the spare
bedroom. So I moved the home office into a corner of the living/dining
room... but that's not working because there's too many distractions. I'm
considering partitioning the rear end of my external garage off and putting
the computer in there but I am concerned that the cold/damp will affect it.
When I'm in the garage I will have the heater on but when I'm not there
won't be any heat in there. I live in the UK so it can get pretty cold in
the winter. What do you think?

I suppose I could always put the baby in the garage )

Thanks for any opinions.

Sonars_UK

 

[kony]

Hi

Our second baby has just been born and he will soon be moving into the spare
bedroom. So I moved the home office into a corner of the living/dining
room... but that's not working because there's too many distractions. I'm
considering partitioning the rear end of my external garage off and putting
the computer in there but I am concerned that the cold/damp will affect it.
When I'm in the garage I will have the heater on but when I'm not there
won't be any heat in there. I live in the UK so it can get pretty cold in
the winter. What do you think?

I suppose I could always put the baby in the garage )

Thanks for any opinions.

Sonars_UK

Create a "heater" out of a light bulb or a few power resistors
and put it in the system case. You might have to experiment a
bit to see how much heat, or rather how much the leakage, effects
the sustained temp in winter but it shouldn't need be very
powerful, perhaps a couple dozen watts though that's only a
random guess, you need not have it room temp but at least it
should be above the dew point. You could rig up a relay such
that the normally closed contacts opened when system turned on,
so then heat was off, and vice-versa. Preferribly it'd be in the
bottom of the case, since heated air travels up.

 

[Toshi1873]

gui.server.ntli.net>, "Sonars_UK" <sonars_uk@(remove)
hotmail.com> says...

Hi

Our second baby has just been born and he will soon be moving into the spare
bedroom. So I moved the home office into a corner of the living/dining
room... but that's not working because there's too many distractions. I'm
considering partitioning the rear end of my external garage off and putting
the computer in there but I am concerned that the cold/damp will affect it.
When I'm in the garage I will have the heater on but when I'm not there
won't be any heat in there. I live in the UK so it can get pretty cold in
the winter. What do you think?

Reasonable cold probably won't matter (e.g. not cold
enough to freeze water), condensation would be a bad
thing though. Large temperature swings might cause
cables/chips to loosen. Lots and lots of insulation in
the walls/ceiling would also help stabilize the
temperature.

One solution (depending on the size of the space, and
the amount of insulation) would be a pair of 75W
incadescent bulbs that you leave turned on in the room.
That might be enough to keep the temperature at normal
levels.

 

[CBFalconer]

Reasonable cold probably won't matter (e.g. not cold
enough to freeze water), condensation would be a bad
thing though. Large temperature swings might cause
cables/chips to loosen. Lots and lots of insulation in
the walls/ceiling would also help stabilize the
temperature.

One solution (depending on the size of the space, and
the amount of insulation) would be a pair of 75W
incadescent bulbs that you leave turned on in the room.
That might be enough to keep the temperature at normal
levels.

Based on the effect of a single 100 Watt bulb left in the engine
room of a car at -20 F or so, I think the problem will be to avoid
overheating with a bulb in the box. It might be simpler to just
leave the beastie on, and defeat any automatic power downs.

 

[Stacey]

Hi

Our second baby has just been born and he will soon be moving into the
spare
bedroom. So I moved the home office into a corner of the living/dining
room... but that's not working because there's too many distractions. I'm
considering partitioning the rear end of my external garage off and
putting the computer in there but I am concerned that the cold/damp will
affect it.

Leave it running 24/7 and it should be fine.

 

[R. Sole]

don't forget that your printer paper might get damp in a cold garage.

 

[kony]

Create a "heater" out of a light bulb or a few power resistors
and put it in the system case. You might have to experiment a
bit to see how much heat, or rather how much the leakage, effects
the sustained temp in winter but it shouldn't need be very
powerful, perhaps a couple dozen watts though that's only a
random guess, you need not have it room temp but at least it
should be above the dew point. You could rig up a relay such
that the normally closed contacts opened when system turned on,
so then heat was off, and vice-versa. Preferribly it'd be in the
bottom of the case, since heated air travels up.

I seem to have overlooked the monitor, it too needs to be kept
above the dew-point. Many other products are cool running,
practically sealed and wouldn't be as suceptible to problems but
even so the easier solution might be a light bulb heating the
whole area or a heater that can be set very low.

 

[~misfit~]

Hi

Our second baby has just been born and he will soon be moving into the spare
bedroom. So I moved the home office into a corner of the living/dining
room... but that's not working because there's too many distractions. I'm
considering partitioning the rear end of my external garage off and putting
the computer in there but I am concerned that the cold/damp will affect it.
When I'm in the garage I will have the heater on but when I'm not there
won't be any heat in there. I live in the UK so it can get pretty cold in
the winter. What do you think?

I suppose I could always put the baby in the garage )

Thanks for any opinions.

Leave the PC on 24/7 and it will be fine. Cold isn't a problem, it's an
advantage, only moisture is a problem and if the PC is always warm then
that won't be a problem either.

 

[~misfit~]

I seem to have overlooked the monitor, it too needs to be kept
above the dew-point. Many other products are cool running,
practically sealed and wouldn't be as suceptible to problems but
even so the easier solution might be a light bulb heating the
whole area or a heater that can be set very low.

I wondered about the monitor too but thought that maybe it would produce
enough heat in stand-by mode?

 

[kony]

I wondered about the monitor too but thought that maybe it would produce
enough heat in stand-by mode?

It might but I hesitate to assume it. Just doesn't seem like a
good idea to leave a monitor in freezing temps and expect it to
maintain proper temp on it's own... they aren't meant to be used
in such temps and parts like the capacitors may not meet needed
spec at much below room temp, especially as the monitor gets
older.

One garage could vary quite a bit from the next, we have no idea
how well sealed it is, how insulated, how damp, etc. If anything
metal in the garage seems to be corroding faster than things in
the house, it'll happen to parts of the PC too. It could run all
the time but this pulls a lot more dust though it and might not
be sufficient in sleep mode, in the dead of winter. If system
was prevented from being in sleep mode then the components are
wearing to produce heat when a simple inexpensive heater could be
used instead. Maybe OP can find one of those tiny space-heaters
that has a thermostat adjustable down to a very low temp, which
is at least a finer level of control over the temp.

 

[Trent©]

Hi

Our second baby has just been born and he will soon be moving into the spare
bedroom. So I moved the home office into a corner of the living/dining
room... but that's not working because there's too many distractions. I'm
considering partitioning the rear end of my external garage off and putting
the computer in there but I am concerned that the cold/damp will affect it.
When I'm in the garage I will have the heater on but when I'm not there
won't be any heat in there. I live in the UK so it can get pretty cold in
the winter. What do you think?

I think its a bad idea. No matter what method you choose, yer gonna
be depending on electricity...which goes out occasionally. Unless you
have immediate, emergency backup for any kind of heating system out
there, I'd scrap the idea.

In case you do have emergency (generator) service there, get yourself
a milk house heater and run it out there.

I suppose I could always put the baby in the garage )

I'd check with the wife first! lol

If the garage wasn't external, I wouldn't see much of a problem.

Have you considered minor remodeling? For instance, can you put up a
temporary partition in that bedroom?...until the baby gets older and
really forces you out? Even a folding partition of sorts in your
master bedroom might work.

Just don't keep the computer on when you....well, you know! lol

Good luck.


Have a nice week...

Trent©

Follow Joan Rivers' example --- get pre-embalmed!

 

[CBFalconer]

It might but I hesitate to assume it. Just doesn't seem like a
good idea to leave a monitor in freezing temps and expect it to
maintain proper temp on it's own... they aren't meant to be used
in such temps and parts like the capacitors may not meet needed
spec at much below room temp, especially as the monitor gets
older.

I wouldn't sweat it. TV sets are not too dissimilar to monitors,
and we leave one in our Maine home over the winter, unheated,
where it gets to 20 and 30 below (F). I think that is something
like -30 to -35 (C). No problems over many years. I doubt you
ever get that cold in England, although Scotland might.

--
Some useful references:
<http://www.ungerhu.com/jxh/clc.welcome.txt>
<http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html>
<http://benpfaff.org/writings/clc/off-topic.html>
<http://anubis.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n869/> (C99)

 

[Sonars_UK]

Thanks everyone for the interesting replies. They gave me a lot to think
about.

I think that damp is going to be a serious problem in the garage. I'm just
concerned about leaving things on 24/7 and heaters on overnight, especially
with two young kiddies in the house.

After your very helpful replies... my solution is this:

I'm going to keep the main computer where it is in the living room.
Although there are major distractions it does have the advantage of me being
able to keep an eye on the kids when need be.

I'm going to purchase a second-hand medium spec lap top thats perhaps a year
to eighteen months old. I will just use it for web design, internet, email
and letters etc... so hopefully it shouldn't be too expensive. I'll set up
a wireless home network so I can share the printer, cable modem, etc... in
the living room. This way I can even sit in the car or the garage! if the
kids are being too crazy.

Do you think this makes sence?

Regards,

Sonars UK