[3dem] Cryo-EM lab temperature and humidity specifications

[Steven Ludtke]

Houston has a similar climate. My condolences :^)    Generally speaking, the lower the better, of course.
Also keep in mind that from the perspective of the specimen at LN2 temperatures, what really matters is
the total partial vapor pressure of the water in the air, and that relative humidity is relative to saturation at
a specific temperature. ie - the somewhat obvious point that 20% RH at 70 degrees is a lot less humid than
20% at 80 degrees from the perspective of the specimen. I would say your numbers are similar to what we
achieve. However, it is very expensive for the university to keep a set of rooms under these conditions, in
this climate, so we find that our physical plant periodically 'relaxes' their settings and waits to see if we 
complain about it.  Something to look out for...  keep a T/H chart recorder somewhere in the suite :^)


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steven Ludtke, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Co-Director National Center For Macromolecular Imaging
Dept of Biochemistry and Mol. Biol.
Baylor College of Medicine
sludtke at bcm.edu
stevel at alumni.caltech.edu
http://ncmi.bcm.edu/~stevel



On Feb 24, 2010, at 9:39 AM, Wright, Elizabeth R. wrote:

> Dear All,
> 
> We are in the middle of renovations to our EM facility to house two new TEMs, one will be a dedicated cryo-microscope. One of the details we are attempting to work through with our campus engineers is the necessary room temperature and humidity levels for this instrument. As we are in Atlanta, GA, the ambient humidity can fluctuate between close to 100% (summer) to approximately 20% (fall and winter). Does anyone have any suggestions on what is the optimal value for room humidity? Currently, we are able to achieve ~30% (summer) and ~18% (winter) for the dedicated cryo-microscope room.
> 
> Any suggestions and ideas would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Liz 
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