Why Do Electronics Collect Dust?

 

One common question that we get from our prospective clients is ‘is there anything we can do about the dust constantly collecting on our computers?’ as they are at a wit’s end dealing with dust on their electronics. Especially since dust harms not only their electronic equipment but potentially the health of their employees too. As commercial cleaning experts, we have 36 years in daily office cleaning and fighting off dust. We can give our clients, and your business the full picture of why electronics collect dust. Furthermore, we will tell you how to deal with it.

 

What is in Office Dust?

We don’t want to bog you down with jargon, but we are proud to say we have done our homework on the subject. The Conversation, a platform with content written by journalists and academics, explains that dust can be a mix of many things such as soil, dead skin cells, pollution, bits of insects, food particles, and other substances. Some of them even being potentially harmful as we will be explaining further.

 

Why Does Dust Gather on Electronics?

Dust can build up more in an office because of the traffic of people going in and sitting at desks for long periods. Our electronics usually remain unmoving, so all the accumulating dust will settle on them. Computers especially can suffer from dust for a variety of reasons. PC World explains that computer fans can suck dust into the system,  in addition, there is electromagnetism. A Stack Exchange forum explains that atoms in the computer (especially the screen) are positively charged, and the dust particles are on the whole negatively charged. Opposites then attract, and like a magnet, the dust starts to stick.

 

Is Dust Bad for Electronic Equipment?

Dust is a major enemy to our business’s electrical equipment. According to Electrical Talk, the build-up of dust on and in electrical equipment can cause irreversible damage to them. This is mainly because the coating of dust can cause components to overheat, in circuit boards it can lead them to short-circuiting. In addition, a spark on a dust-covered surface or component can lead to a flashfire. As businesses, our electronic equipment can be essential to our operation, and costly assets to replace.

 

Can Dust on Electronics Harm Employee Health?

In addition to potential equipment damage, dust could potentially damage the health of your employees. Further, the article produced by The Conversation, explains that dust can also contain some ‘nasties’ such as trace metals, microplastics, radioactive particles, pollution chemicals, and even genetic materials that could make office bacteria resistant to antibiotics. In an office, your employees will be using some electronic equipment for long periods, so it is important to clean office dust regularly.

 

Tips for Managing Dust in Your Office

Hiring a Cleaning Operative for the Office

Electronic equipment can be delicate to clean, and the wrong move can cause damage to your assets. We recommend hiring a professional cleaning operative from a service such as Spotless to handle this and ensure a high standard of cleaning. Depending on where your office is based and other factors, you could require daily cleaning services to keep electronics in tip-top shape! 

 

Removing Carpets from Spaces with Electronics

Expert blog website One Computer Guy say that while computers can sit on carpeted surfaces, they also tend to trap a lot of particles such as dust. This means when your computer fan circulates it can gather up and collect the trapped dust from the carpet! In addition, the positively charged computer when on will collect dust too. So, we would recommend having hard surface flooring to decrease dust. To help protect your equipment even more, have computers and other electronic raised from the floor or even on desks.

 

Purchasing or Hiring Specialised Cleaning Equipment

It can be difficult to clean all the dust in an office space, especially in hard-to-reach nooks and crannies, which is why you can need specialised tools. For example, there is industrial equipment from providers such as Spacevac that can reach high places. When hiring our cleaning services, we have access to a variety of industrial cleaning equipment including the Spacevac.

 

Air Purifiers for Dust in the Air

An article in the lifestyle magazine Home & Gardens has an expert explain that while having air purifiers may not eliminate dust, it can help. The air purifier will filter and capture excess dust that is the air of the office that has not settled. This means that dust will be more manageable to clean in the space. So, it may be beneficial for your employees to have an air purifier near their desks.

 

Managing Ventilation in the Office

Having ventilation systems in the office means that dust can circulate through the office and have fewer opportunities to settle on electrical equipment. In addition, encourage employees to open windows regularly to let the air circulate the dust out of the space, especially on sunny days when the air will be drier in comparison to a wet day.

 

Putting Dust Covers Over Electronics

If you have electronic equipment in your office that is particularly sensitive or high value, we highly recommend getting dust covers to protect them when not in use. While they may seem like overkill, they can be beneficial in protecting the equipment from outside dust making its way into the office. This could be industrial or construction dust, pollution dust (e.g. car fumes), and natural dust such as soil.

 

Space Around Electronic Equipment

As stated previously in this article, it is important to circulate dust, so it is less likely to settle. Keeping a computer trapped in corners means that dust will get trapped in parts where the dust cannot escape. This is a recipe for disaster if it settles at the back near the fan. So we would advise having plenty of space around your office’s electronic equipment, not too close to a wall or other objects. This will allow airflow around the units and keep dust moving on.

 

We hope that this blog has highlighted to you the importance of managing dust in your office. Not only will you help protect your electronic assets from irreversible damage, but you will be protecting the health and wellbeing of your daily office goers. By hiring a commercial cleaning service, you can get back to business and leave the rest to us.