Posts Tagged ‘Climate’

What’S So Different About Climate Controlled Storage Anyway?

Posted by on Saturday, January 9, 2010. Leave a Comment

Customers are usually not very familiar with the term climate controlled self storage units. These are self storage units that stay roughly between 55 and 70 degrees all year long. These units are typically used to store temperature sensitive items that a customer wants to remain in good condition. Some examples of this would be instruments, electronics such as computers or computer parts, and wood furnishings and antiques should also be stored in a climate controlled facility. Basically, anything that may be warped or damaged in extreme hot or cold temperatures should be stored in a climate controlled facility.

Climate controlled self storage units are located all over the country, but most are offered in warmer climates because of humidity. Most climate controlled units are indoors. High humidity, high or low temperatures are the leading causes for damage for goods in storage. What is the difference between climate controlled and humidity controlled units? The difference is slim between climate controlled units and humidity controlled units, but is still very important. Many times climate controlled and humidity controlled units are combined into one unit. In order to be classified as humidity controlled the unit must be kept at a relative humidity of 55 or less to decrease mold and mildew growth.

There are many items that should be stored in humidity and climate controlled units such as paper products that are sensitive to mold or mildew, objects made of iron that are sensitive to rust, computer parts, rugs or carpets sensitive to mildew, refrigerators and freezers sensitive to rust and more. Climate controlled units can vary in price but usually are about $20-$30 more. The reason for the increase in price is due to the use of energy. Overall, climate controlled self storage units are important at facilities in areas that are extremely hot or cold at times. Self storage owners should take area, climate, security and gate hours in consideration when building a self storage facility that offers climate controlled self storage units.

When you are going to rent a space in such a place make sure you get the exact specification of the of the rental agency prior to entering into any sort of agreement. This will help you to plan the storing and make sure that you get the right type of storing option for your goods. Climate controlled storage ensures at least one thing; your items will not get damaged from direct contact with rain or snow or humidity. Since the storing facility is insulated against the temperature changes. It automatically seals out the rain and snow.

So these units are good place to store articles which are sensitive to moisture. This means the articles made of wood or other materials that absorb moisture very quickly can be stored at these facilities without hesitation and fear of getting damaged when the moisture content in the air rises. The temperature is controlled by central heating or cooling units that control the temperature and humidity by indirect method. This maintains the temperature throughout the facility.

Climate controlled self storage is a must for many of the items that people use for the purpose of storing. Certain household or commercial items might require to be maintained at temperatures and humidity levels other than that what is available. Of course there are some standard features that most commonly offer like not letting the temperature in the storing drop below freezing in winter and not letting it rise above a specific temperature in the summer. Regular steel self storage buildings only have a couple inch vapor barrier that goes in the roof to prevent moisture and condensation from forming. Climate control storage buildings, on the other hand, have actual insulation to provide temperature control and better moisture control. Unlike in a regular mini storage, climate control self storage depends on airflow, and moving the airflow within the units.

Self-storage units have become very popular in recent years. Many people find themselves in need of more storage space than their own houses and garages can provide. Self-storage companies offer a number of different options, including what is known as climate controlled. What are the advantages and disadvantages of climate controlled storage? The answers may surprise you. Although most people assume that maintaining an even temperature is the only sure way to protect their valuables, the danger can often vary significantly based on the location of that storage facility. If you have items that you want to see remain in good shape then it is worth the extra few dollars and goes with a climate controlled storage unit.

Simply Self Storage – What Could be Easier than Simply?
Simply Self Storage is the largest privately owned self storage company in the United States and Puerto Rico. We own and/or operate over 228 facilities with over 16.1 million square feet of storage space.

Why You Should Put Valuable Items in Climate Controlled Storage

Posted by on Friday, January 8, 2010. Leave a Comment

Climate controlled storage has become very popular with families and individuals in just the past few years. As people begin to collect new items, add new members to their family, or start to make more money they often outgrow the storage space available in their own homes. For these individuals storage becomes the answer to many storage problems with climate controlled storage becoming the ultimate storage solution. With climate controlled storage families do not need to fear storing their valuables outside of their homes ever again. Now they can safely store their valuable clothing, furniture, and more without risk of damage.

Up until very recently families and individuals interested in storage were only provided access to units that were little more than garages without the house attached. They were offered bare concrete floors and basic walls that would release heat during the winter and evaporate cool air in the summer. This meant that the temperature and climate of the storage unit was at the complete mercy of the elements. Many people stored their items only to find that they were ruined by leaks, damp air, and too much heat. This lack of stability made it impossible for individuals to feel safe storing the valuable items in storage units with many people placing their things in storage expecting to get them back in bad shape.

As an added nightmare the poor construction that was letting in the heat and cold was also letting other things in with it. Many storage units were easily infested by rodents and insects. The basic construction designed solely to keep out the elements did not thing to prevent pests from entering the facility. Without climate control and sound construction people would go to retrieve their items from storage and find that the entire area had been overrun by mice or insects.

Protect your personal items when they are in storage by choosing to use only climate control storage units and avoiding everything else. These days most new or remodeled storage facilities offer climate controlled units to their clients. The storage units that are equipped with climate control features will never drop below freezing temperatures during the winter months and they will not get overheated during the summer months. Most storage companies offering climate control will even allow clients to set a constant temperature for their unit.

Renting a climate controlled storage unit is often more expensive than renting a traditional storage unit because of the fees associated with maintaining a stable temperature. Storage companies will usually be able to tell you the exact temperature of the climate controlled units throughout the year. This is extremely useful if you are storing items that should not fall below, or rise above, a certain temperature. If you are afraid that the storage company will not keep the climate controlled units at a constant temperature throughout the year do not sign any contracts with them until you are guaranteed some control over your temperature and have that requirement added into any contract. Most storage companies that offer climate control will specify a maximum and minimum temperature that has usually been chosen with cost effectiveness in mind.

Climate control is an important feature when storing items of any value. Many people who have stored their items in standard storage facilities have been shocked to find their belongings completely ruined because of humid weather and other natural problems. Wood furniture often cracks after being exposed to extreme cold followed immediately by extreme heat. Regulating the temperature of a room is the only way to guarantee the safety of your valuable items. This protection will help avoid problems such as rusting, mold, mildew, and other deterioration. This protection is especially useful when storing antiques and other delicate valuables that are not able to handle constant changes in temperature and climate especially dampness in the air.

In addition to protecting from the weather the sturdy construction of climate control units will help protect your belongings from rodents and insects. In standard storage facilities it is not uncommon for renters to find that their belongings have been ruined by nesting rodents and infested by insects. Using a climate controlled unit will help avoid all of this while protecting your belongings from serious damage. This will help keep you from going to your storage facility one day and leaving in anger when you discover nearly all of your valuables have been ruined by pests or mildew. Investing a bit of additional time and money into finding the right climate control storage facility can help save your valuables from damage and harm when in a storage facility.

Simply Self Storage – What Could be Easier than Simply?


Simply Self Storage is the largest privately owned self storage company in the United States and Puerto Rico. We own and/or operate over 228 facilities with over 16.1 million square feet of storage space.

How To Get More Out Of Your Storage Rental

Posted by on Saturday, January 2, 2010. Leave a Comment

Renting a self storage unit gives you far more opportunity than simply having an extra space where you can store away items, in addition to your closets, your garage and your attic. In order to maximize the value of your self storage unit, keep in mind these tips to learn how to get more out of your storage rental.

Tip #1: Stay Organized!
Do not treat your storage unit like you might treat your closets, garage or attic. In other words, maximize the value of your self storage unit by keeping it organized at all times so that you can easily access and use the items that you need at any time that you need them. Store similar items with or by one another and maintain neat rows and piles for all of the items that are contained within your self storage unit. When you have more containers to add to your self storage unit, make sure that they are added in an orderly fashion, instead of simply being shoved inside.

Tip #2: Not Only Clutter!
Your storage unit doesn’t have to become another closet. Instead of using it to store away only random pieces of unrelated clutter, use your storage unit for a purpose. Storage units are great to store a collection of items in one safe and secure place. For instance, if you are involved in a club or organization that uses certain items that may be hard to store away, you can dedicate an entire self storage unit to keeping all items stored together and easily accessible at any time

You don’t just have to keep an organized collection for a club, however. You can also use your self storage unit to organize one of your own collections. If you are an antiques nut but don’t have enough room in your own home to display your pieces, keep the all together in a climate controlled self storage unit. If you have a million baseball cards or perhaps collect other items like movie memorabilia, keep it all together in the secure environment of your self storage unit.

Tip #3: Save for the Future
When you are remodeling your home, buying new items for your kitchen or new furniture for your living room, it may be tempting to throw all of your old items away. Stop! Do you have children who will be going out on their own in the next few years? If your used items are in relatively good repair, you can save them to give your kids a head start on all of the things that they will need while living on their own. Furniture and household items can be very expensive to buy, and chances are that the money you spend on a storage unit will be far less than the cost of buying all of those items in the future. You can get more out of your storage rental by keeping those items to use when your children need them than by helping them to buy new items in the future.

Tip #4: Welcome to Your Office
Well, not literally. But welcome to your warehouse! Many people run home businesses, selling a variety of items to people around the world through the power of the internet. But keeping the kind of inventory necessary to your business within your own home can be quite difficult. Rather than cluttering your home with your inventory, organize it neatly in your self storage unit. As soon as you sell an item, you will know exactly where to find it in your mini warehouse. No longer will you have to wonder where it is stored – instead, you’ll always have perfect order to your items. In addition, you will get a lot out of your storage rental because the cost of the rental can be written off as a business expense!

Tip #5: Split the Space
For some people, even the smallest storage unit is a little too large. If you only have specific items that you want to store in your storage unit, considering finding a friend or family member to split the cost of the unit with you. Ensure that it is someone who can be trusted to keep their half neatly organized, just as you will keep your own half. In addition, make sure you agree under whose name the unit will go and how payments will be managed. But once the logistics are worked out, but you and your storage unit partner will begin to reap the great rewards of a self storage unit.

Simply Self Storage – What Could be Easier than Simply?
Simply Self Storage is the largest privately owned self storage company in the United States and Puerto Rico. We own and/or operate over 228 facilities with over 16.1 million square feet of storage space.

Vehicle Storage

Posted by on Wednesday, December 30, 2009. Leave a Comment

No matter what type of vehicle you own, when you need storage for that vehicle, you need some choices when it comes to storing it. Whether it is a classic car or one you tinker with under the hood it deserves to be protected. Many living scenarios don’t afford a place to store your vehicle or have partial storage such as an overhead shelter that does not completely protect your vehicle from the elements. When this is the case, you need some options for where to store your vehicle either for an entire season, a few weeks or whatever length of time you determine.

Warehouses are also great places for vehicle storage of your classic car. Many warehouses provide a safe place that is climate-controlled, secured by keyed or gated access only and large enough to ensure that your classic car is not bumped, damaged or disturbed by other people who also have storage space there. Some warehouses even have special options they offer to people who are planning to store cars of all types for an entire season such as all winter or summer or even the whole year. These features include winterizing such as oil changes or periodic vehicle starts to keep engines from remaining idle too long.

Another way to keep your car safe with vehicle storage is to store it in an underground parking facility. Underground parking is an excellent place to store your car when you are not driving it and want it to be safe from the elements. One of the main advantages of underground storage is that your car is not on the street but safely parked in a designed space underground. Underground parking facilities are comparable in cost to enclosed parking structures but sometimes are not manned by 24-hour security. Underground security can also be a risk for flooding damage if applicable.

Storage sheds are another way to store your vehicle. Unlike your garage, a storage shed can be constructed exclusively for your vehicle or if you are renting storage shed space, your car may be the only car in the shed. The nice thing about storage sheds is they can be designated just for your car and not other items that might damage your classic car like paint, tools or other objects.

Keeping your car safe with vehicle storage is the best way to take care of your car when you do not have space in your garage and you need to protect your car from the elements such as rain and snow. Vehicle storage comes in a variety of options but one of the most popular vehicle storage options is to store your vehicle in an enclosed parking structure.

Enclosing parking structures that offer vehicle storage for your car can be expensive for the length of time that you use them but they are a worthwhile investment for many reasons. First, enclosed parking structures are usually maintained by 24-hour security or completed secured by gate with access available only to those who pay to store their vehicles in the structure. Enclosed parking structures keep your car safe from the weather, theft and accidental damage that can result from being parked on the street or even in your garage.

States like Michigan offer vehicle storage for your traditional or classic vehicle to be kept safe throughout the winter season. This is very important if you want your car to be protected from the winter conditions that are prevalent in Michigan from around Thanksgiving to Easter, sometimes longer. Remember, no matter how you choose to keep your car safe, some form of vehicle storage is the best thing you can do for your car when it isn’t in use. Keeping your car safe maintains a longer life.

If you are looking for quality vehicle storage in Michigan, remember that vehicle storage facilities may fill up quicker as the winter months approach and it would be a good idea to get your vehicle storage unit selected and pay at least a deposit and a month or two of the rent to ensure that you will have a place to put your vehicle before the snow and other in climate weather comes.

Simply Self Storage – What Could be Easier than Simply?
Simply Self Storage is the largest privately owned self storage company in the United States and Puerto Rico. We own and/or operate over 228 facilities with over 16.1 million square feet of storage space.

Climate Controlled Self Storage

Posted by on Tuesday, December 29, 2009. Leave a Comment

Most people think of climate control storage as something that food service companies need to keep food refrigerated or frozen. For the average user, they think of self storage as a large building made of rooms that are about the size of a one-car garage or smaller, with a garage type door and no special features at all. And some self storage units are just that a medium-sized concrete room with a garage type door that allow large items to be put into the storage unit easily. The temperature inside the unit varies with the season; they’re boiling hot in the summer and frigid in the winter. These types of storage units are ideal for items that aren’t affected by changes in climate or for short term storage.

Some self storage facilities offer covered outdoor storage for certain items, and some offer indoor storage designed for specific purposes, so your choices don’t just range from mini storage to units that are large enough to house every piece of your furniture. You can get specialized self storage for your other storage needs, too.

Climate control storage is offered at many facilities and can be used for a variety of purposes. Some companies will have climate controlled self storage units just for storing wine, for instance. They’ll be able to tell you how many cases will fit into each unit, and should offer the temperature they keep the unit at 24 hours per day and 7 days per week-for wine, it should be right around 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

This type of special self storage will cost more than a standard storage unit of the same size that doesn’t have climate control. It will probably also cost a little more if it’s designated for a specific purpose – like wine self storage p than if it’s merely advertised as air conditioned and heated to maintain a certain temperature and therefore keep items from melting or freezing.

For the wine aficionado, wine self storage offers the benefits of keeping fine wines at the ideal temperature year round. Many people who enjoy wines don’t have the optimal storage space in their homes for the bottles. A wine cellar is ideal because of the built-in coolness of rooms that are underground, but if you don’t have a wine cellar, having one built can be expensive. Self storage is a good, cost effective solution for storing wine properly.

Storing wine isn’t the only good application of climate control storage. If you need to store wooden furniture, for instance, you could store it in a regular self storage unit that has a temperature that can vary widely according to the season. Or you could pay just a little more and store it in climate control storage, which will much better protect your furniture investment.

Wood furniture might not be affected much by the heat or cold of the air, but climate control storage doesn’t just control temperature. These units control the amount of dust in the air by their very nature. Because heating or cooling is used, air filters are also used, which can keep your storage unitcleaner and better protect the surfaces of your furniture or other items.

When you rent a regular storage unit, the changes in temperature can cause condensation and “sweating” on some surfaces. This moisture can cause damage like mold, mildew, water stains, discoloration and even warping, in some more extreme cases.

With climate control units, which are typically kept at a temperature between 60 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit, this condensation is prevented, protecting the items from moisture damage. Climate control units are also, by their nature, humidity controlled. So the dryer air also protects your items from the damage that can be caused by being in a moist environment.

Many items like artwork or antique items can be preserved longer and better in a climate control storage unit. Think of the museums and archaeological societies when they uncover a treasure-it’s immediately put into a climate controlled environment to minimize any further decay and damage. Your valuable items deserve no less attention.

Even items like clothing and paperwork can be damaged by humidity and moisture caused by rapidly changing temperatures and extreme temperatures. Your clothes and papers could come out of storage with a musty smell, or even show signs of mildew if not in climate control storage.

A final benefit to climate control storage is that, along with the units, the hallways in the building are likely climate controlled too, so that you’re more comfortable when accessing your items.

Simply Self Storage – What Could be Easier than Simply?
Simply Self Storage is the largest privately owned self storage company in the United States and Puerto Rico. We own and/or operate over 228 facilities with over 16.1 million square feet of storage space.