Optimal cleanroom temperature:
Influence on working conditions and product quality
Cleanroom temperature in the room affects working conditions in terms of height, as well as the product being processed.
In a cleanroom overhead, the temperature is easily too high with the slightest effort. It requires examination of the operators’ work in the room and the type of clothing before it can be determined what the set point should be and the standard deviation.
It turns out in practice that a room temperature of 19ºC +/- 2 is ideal for personnel in cleanroom suits. But it is usually not the operators who determine what the most ideal temperature is, but the product to be processed. In the food industry, room temperatures of 15º or -15ºC are common.
Low temperature has a positive impact on sterility. The growth of microorganisms decreases. The combination of sufficient circulation with filtered air and low temperature and relative humidity limits the growth of colony-forming units.
The germ count or colony-forming units (cfu) is the number of bacteria germs found in or on a product.
During certification of the space, this is examined. It indicates the degree to which the room is clean. The germ count can be determined by applying a small amount of the product to be examined to a petri dish with a selective culture medium and putting it away at certain temperatures, depending on the type of bacteria to be expected.
A constant cleanroom temperature, 365 days, 24/7 unchanged. Yet sometimes during the summer months people want to change the temperature to a lower(!) setpoint while according to the original settings the cleanroom temperature is unchanged. In summer, it appears warmer while nothing has changed in the cleanroom.