Are you moving to a smaller office, or moving into a smaller home? Do you just need an extra place to store a few important items as you renovate or take inventory? If you don't have basement or attic space, a mobile storage unit can be a great way to get that extra room. Before getting any random mobile storage unit, you need to make sure to take special precautions for sensitive and expensive items, such as electronics or metal devices. Here are a few protective measures to keep your investment safe in mobile storage.
Look For A Good Seal
Especially in humid areas, any enclosed space can become a rust or corrosion risk. Humidity can seep in through anything large enough to let air in--which can be smaller than the human eye can see--and can cause significant damage to electronics.
Most electronics operate by sending information in the form of electricity across copper or gold traces. These traces can corrode when left in water for extended periods of time, which is a process of the core metal atoms breaking their bonds and turning into a brittle surface material. Since many of these traces are thin to an exacting point, any kind or corrosion can break the circuit or lead to erratic electrical failure.
To protect against most of these issues, a completely closed mobile storage unit is necessary. This means making sure that the internal walls are backed up by an exterior shell, that all corners are solid without noticeable cracks, and that all openings (doors, windows, vents) have rubber or silicone seals that can create a closed environment.
The storage unit doesn't need to be sterilized to the point of being a clean room, and there may be some ventilation points near the top to allow survivable breathing in case a person accidentally becomes locked inside, but unprotected leakage areas are too much of a risk.
Enhancing Cleanliness And Reducing Humidity With Air Conditioning
Depending on how large the storage unit is, you may want to use a portable/temporary air conditioning (AC) unit or a dehumidifier. The air conditioning unit is helpful if you plan on using the storage unit as a dual-purpose storage area and workplace, while a dehumidifier will simply remove water from the air to make the less-than-well-sealed storage units more viable.
Air conditioning removes humidity as a passive part of the air conditioning process. Be careful when mounting the air conditioning unit, as an AC unit exposed to rain can bring in more moisture than it pushes out. This water is sometimes pushed back out of the room it cools when the rain stops, but it's a simple enough problem to avoid by putting the air conditioning unit under dry shelter.
If you have no shelter, a dehumidifier is absolutely necessary. Use an extension cord to bring power to the device if needed, or have a backup generator ready to power the dehumidifier when needed. To learn more, contact a company like AA All American Airborne Self-Storage.
Share24 October 2017
Hello, my name is Stella Vincent. Welcome to my website about personal storage facilities. When I was a college-bound scholar, I had to decide if I would sell, throw out or store my belongings. Since I had so many high-value and sentimental items, I decided to store them until I returned from college. The process of selecting and setting up a storage facility was stressful because I did not know what to expect. Since then, I have learned the ropes and wish to share my knowledge with you all through this site. I invite you to come by anytime you need to learn more about acquiring a personal storage unit.