So I routinely put fans in cabinets and closets for people, telling them that it’s pretty hard to damage anything electronic nowadays, unless you overheat it. Last week, doing some other work at a house, I was up in the attic and noticed an NVR there. Didn’t pay much attention, other than why do that?

Fast forward to a day or so ago, and the client says “I have more work for you. Only about four of my cameras are working, can you check it for me?”

Would step one include moving that puppy out of the attic? It’s only about 140° there on a hot summer day in California.

It would be prudent to move it to an area with lower temperature. For those who are used to seeing temperatures in Celsius, that's 60 degrees C. That sounds like an operating temperature limit rather than an expected environment.

However, what is there about a NVR that would cause failures of individual inputs? I can't answer that but it seems unlikely. I'd expect global failures such as simply not playing.

Still, it's a damn good idea to get the NVR into a reasonable temperature environment. If this installation were in the desert, nobody would entertain putting it in the attic, probably because you might think it could get up to 140 degrees there, which would eventually damage the NVR. And that's what you have now.

tomciara

Whoever put that device in the attic is just a plain moron, does the word fire hazard come to mind!! The advice of Ernie to move it is the understatement of the day, by a factor of, you put a number on it!

Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES ARE YOU TO LEAVE THAT DEVICE IN THE ATTIC! Do so, and your risk of getting sued is a slam dunk should the shit hit the fan. Bad things happen when we least expect them!

No device especially electrical ones should be placed in an environment inconsistent with their UL Listing.

I just scrolled through a HIKVision DVR manual. I checked the "working temperature" of three models. It was 55 degrees C, or 131 F. I'll just jump to saying that above that is the "not working temperature."

The maximum operating temperature of a product, just means it will operate for a limited time. If you want the device to actually last, you should never operate it near any extreme.

A little over 2 years ago, I had to fix a camera system were an idiot IT guy had put the CCTV power supply in the attic. Of course it was dead and had burned up. But what was even funnier (or scary), he had put a Tripplite battery backup next to it in the attic as well!!! I don't know how the battery did not explode, the case was bugling on all sides by over an inch. I carefully removed it from the attic with full arm gloves and a full face mask. Told the customer to stay back as it literally was a bomb waiting to go off. I think he thought I was overreacting, even thou you could see the massive bulging on all sides. Sent him to Youtube and did a search for exploding SLA batteries.

I just don't understand how people can be so stupid. Especially when it is a job and you are working on other people's property.

About 10 years ago the mobile (cell) phone that I owned had a thermometer built into it. I was working in an attic one Summer day and the temperature was 74C (165F).
That is HOT!

Exactly true but off my point. The DVR is being operated above the maximum in the spec, so, DUH, it needed to be moved.


It takes nothing to be stupid. That is, people can be stupid without doing anything. I mean, people have to do things to become not stupid. There. I got it out right.