Hopefully this is the right community to ask this question. Does anyone know whether there is a significant chance that ozone at approximately 15 ppm will damage consumer electronics, speakers, keyboards, and lab equipment, such as a Tektronix scope, for example?
I'm very sensitive to smells (actually diagnosed with hyperosmia, if anyone wants to know) and there is a slight but unpleasant odor that builds up in the apartment when I keep the windows closed for about 10 hours or so. I moved here recently, and except for this and a couple of other minor problems, I really like it. It's cold and rainy outside, so I can't keep the windows open, as I do in the summer.
I decided to blast the place with ozone, which helped for a few days, but now the odor is coming back. The first time I did this I waited until the rain stopped and hauled all of the electronics to the balcony just in case, and left the place, of course. But I'm not going to drag all of this stuff back and forth again, so I wonder how dangerous is this really?
According to a quick guesstimate based on the ozone generator specs ad the volume of air in the apartment, and assuming ozone half-life of about 30 minutes, the concentration should stabilize at about 15 ppm. Would repeated exposure (let's say a couple of hours once a week) pose a significant risk for electronics?
Best Answer
15 ppm? Holy Cow! It might not damage electronics, but it will surely damage you. See http://www.ozoneservices.com/articles/007.htm 12 ppm kills guinea pigs in 3 hours. .05 ppm is the upper limit for FDA-approved medical devices, and 0.1 ppm it the health and safety limit.
That said, I'd expect only a long-term degradation in electronics gear. I'd expect bleaching of exposed surfaces, among other things, but only over a span of months.
ETA - Spehro has brought up the problem of ozone attacking rubber, and Brian has extended the concern to speakers. This is a valid concern. Ozone cracking is well-known, and there exist antiozonating agents (and no, I'm not making the word up) which get added to the rubber before it's vulcanized. I'm assuming that any rubber found a piece of electronics equipment would be so protected just on general principles. Well, we all know what happens when you assume, so I may be wrong. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_cracking for a discussion of the problem.