Due to space limitations my layout is in the garage. The garage isn't air condtioned or heated. With temps busting 100 in the last few says here and the garage temp being 90-95 is it ok to leave the DCC engines in the heat all the time? I've got an athearn genesis and broadway limited paragon 2 series engines in there. Are they all right? What are the temperature ranges? It will definately get hotter later this summer. Probably 110 in that garage at one point.
Go to Walmart and buy yourself a widow airconditioner for under a $100 you'll be glad you did. I can't say with 100% but I would tend to think the severe temperature changes and not to mention things like dust, mold and dirt found in garages are good for anything with any sort of electronics. I think I would be more concerned with the extreme temperature changes reaking havoc on the track work and scenery more so then the trains themselves.
A window unit for under $100? That would probably be a tiny 4,000 Btu. That wouldn't do much. It takes a 10,000 Btu unit to keep my 8x25 trailer cool and it's insulated. That's less than the floor space of a 2 car garage. An 8,000 MIGHT do it but that would be pushing it.
The cheapest AC unit I see on Wal-Mart's site is a 5,200 Btu window unit for $108. That's good for a 100-150 square foot room and that's not just floor space. That's the ENTIRE room, floor to ceiling. To make a good dent in the heat would take a 8,000 Btu unit. The cheapest on the the Wal-Mart site is $170. That's good for up to 350 square feet.
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Running any air conditioner to keep stuff to an "acceptable" temperature would probably be an 18-hour-a-day operation for a 8-10K BTU unit over a typical summer. If we agree that it would be better for engine lubes, and maybe some shell materails (and that would be debatable) to have a nominal reduction of about 15 degrees, it could add some considerable costs to enjoying a railroad.
I don't know the answer, but the premise has yet to be established. Once we agree that some form of temp reduction is essential for long life and use of the models, then the costs become closer to moot. If the models will do well in even hotter conditions, then save the bucks....initial outlay and subsequent operatings costs.
But, for the record, you would probably need something in excess of 12K BTU to keep an uninsulated stand-alone single car garage cooled mid-summer anywhere south of the 49th. Double that for a double car building.
-Crandell
I am not planning on running an air conditioner. I will simply bring in the engines but I need to know if they will be ok in the hot temps mentioned? Basically, should I bring them in on these hot days or not?
I would bring them in. Electronics don't like heat even when they're off.
Most electronic devices have a specified maximum and minimum storage temperature. The data sheets for the DCC decoders I have don't include this data, but typically, the maximum storage temperature for consumer electronics is in the range of 85-135C, and I have seen limits as low as 70C. Now 70C is more than 170F, so leaving a loco in your garage when the ambient temperature is 100F+ probably won't hurt its decoder. But it's the temperature of the device, not the ambient air that matters, so leaving the same loco in direct sunlight on the dashboard of a closed car might get the decoder hot enough to fail.
Generally, though, it's the maximum operating temperature we have to worry about. Typical operating temperature limits for consumer electronics usually don't exceed 50C(125F). That decoder is sitting on top of a heat-generating electric motor inside a tight-fitting shell with about zero air circulation to cool it. So you're more likely to fry it during a long operating run than while sitting unused on a day when it's too hot to do anything in the train room.
Our HO scale club layout here in Arizona is in a building with no central air conditioning or heat and nothing has been harmed by the extremes in temperature. The building has evaporative coolers that are ran only when someone is present, and the summertime temperatures sometimes approach 100 degrees inside the closed-up building.
If heat was dangerous to electronics and plastics no one in Arizona could have a car or truck with a radio or other electronics. Imagine how hot the interior of such a vehicle gets sitting in 130 degree heat under full sunlight in Phoenix or Yuma in July, or the Mohave desert.
Electronics don't care about storage temperature until it gets ridiculous, like 150F. Semiconductors care more about operating temperatures. Silicon semiconductors can withstand junction temperatures of 200C (twice boiling water). Heat developed in the junction flows from junction to case, and then from case to ambient. The thermal resistance along this path is constant, which means the operating junction temp will be above the ambient temperature be a fixed amount. Raise the ambient 10 degrees and you raise the junction temp 10 degrees. A good design always allows a big enough thermal path to keep the junction temps below 175C working into worst case (hottest) ambient temp. A decent DCC decoder ought to work properly into an ambient of at least 100F if not 120F.
Bottom line. I wouldn't worry about storage temp of the decoders. If they have operated once at 95F you can keep operating them. Semiconductors are like a nose, either it runs or it blows. They don't wear out.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com