Hi all,
For two upcoming holiday weekends, our facilities people need to shut
off our power, HVAC air and compressed air for two or three days at a
time. Shutting the spectrometers down to compensate for the loss of
power and compressed air is a big inconvenience, but one that's easily
managed. However, with no HVAC heat for the room, and with a not-so-
well-insulated exterior roof and one exterior wall, our lab is likely
to get rather cold - potentially near freezing in a worst-case
scenario, considering the typical outdoor temps in Nov/Dec Chicago.
What are the risks we face? The temperature drop is clearly out of
spec for performance purposes, but the instruments will be off, so we
won't really care about that. How cold does the room have to be before
we get concerned about damage, like magnets losing vacuum, or other
odd things like that? Do the magnets need substantial reshimming after
such an episode? Has anyone else experienced such a temperature drop
in the lab? If so, do you have a plan or helpful advice that you could
share?
Thanks.
- Josh
Josh Kurutz, Ph.D.
Instructor and Senior Scientist for NMR
IMSERC, Chemistry Department
Northwestern University
2145 Sheridan Rd.
Evanston, IL 60208-3113
847-467-1949
fax: 208-978-2599
Facility: www.chem.northwestern.edu/imserc
NMR Blog: www.imserc-nmr.org
Twitter feed: twitter.com/imserc_nmr
Other: www.joshkurutz.com
Received on Tue Nov 02 2010 - 11:07:48 MST