Heat wave: How to keep your tech safe and internet fast in extreme temperatures
Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inboxSign up to our free IndyTech newsletterSign up to our free IndyTech newsletterThe heat wave is already threatening our wellbeing, and straining important infrastructure such as transport. But it can have a more quiet, but still profoundly important effect: on the tech in our homes and in our pockets.It can arrive in big ways, such as data centres shutting down. And it can come in small ways, too, such as internet speeds and devices slowing down.Thankfully, there are some simple steps you can take to help limit the effect of extreme heat on the devices and connections that we rely on every day.Much of the impact of the heat on our technology happens far away from our homes. In July 2022, for instance, Google and others were hit by a heatwave in the UK that took its data centres offline. And the technology that keeps us connected to those data centres – the equipment that is found in the cabinets on the street that power our internet connections, for instance – can also struggle in the heat.The problems can also quickly emerge from seemingly unconnected places. “Vulnerabilities are not limited to individual assets but also arise from interdependencies between infrastructure systems,” said Sotirios Argyroudis, Reader in Infrastructure Engineering, Brunel University of London, who recently advised the National Resilience Committee on infrastructure resilience and cascading climate risk. “Transport networks are vulnerable to heat-related impacts such as rail buckling, overhead line sagging and road surface deformation. At the same time, heatwaves often increase electricity demand due to cooling requirements in buildings, transport hubs and data centres, placing additional stress on the power system. “Disruptions can therefore cascade across sectors, affecting transport operations, communications, supply chains and essential services.”But technology doesn’t need to break in large scale, dramatic ways for the heat to have an impact on the way we use it. It might be so subtle that it’s not even possible to notice.All electronics generate heat, and modern technologies such as phones include a variety of complex systems intended to deal with that fact. As such, as their temperature rises, our equipment will make a series of changes to ensure they keep running, without you ever knowing it.That can mean slower speeds, however. When those devices get hot, they may reduce their performance, in an attempt to limit the amount of heat they are generating.That might mean that your internet equipment slows down, for instance, bringing slower internet speeds or weak connections. It might also mean that your devices’ performance decreases, or that they temporarily shut themselves off.Helpfully, there are a variety of easy ways to try and help them keep cool.The most obvious one is to keep the devices out of the heat in the first place. While that might be more obvious with portable devices, other equipment such as internet routers might be sat in direct sunlight – this is bad for them generally, but especially at times of intense heat.It may be helpful to move them into shaded or ventilated areas, and ensure that they have good air flow, to keep them cool. It might also be worth taking additional steps to reduce the demand, such as turning off Wi-Fi if necessary.Our personal devices such as phones should also be kept out of direct heat. And similarly, it is best to ensure that they are able to keep themselves cool – it might be helpful to take off any cases, and ensure that they too have good air flow, for instance.In extreme cases, it might be useful to switch devices of all kinds off. Heat can cause more lasting damage to batteries and other important equipment, and so if the heat gets truly extreme and dangerous then it can be useful to take the above steps and also switch them off so that they are not generating more heat, though that is an extreme step.
