The Arena device is equipped with a Peltier heat-cool system to ensure temperature stability during your long-term experiments.
However, this regulation may not be necessary for short-term measurements (e.g., 30 minutes), and an air-conditioned room should suffice. [Think about the number of manual experiments published where plates are kept under bright light for manual scoring].
To prevent undesirable temperature changes in your experiment, it’s essential to understand the kinetics of temperature change inside the well.
For long-term measurements (longer than 30 minutes), it’s advisable to follow these best practices:
1. Keep the worm plate inside the incubator until the moment of measurement.
2. Precondition the Arena temperature to the desired setup (e.g., 25°C). This process may take 15 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the desired temperature. Cooling typically takes longer.
3. Once the chamber temperature inside the Arena is reached, you can place the plate inside.
4. Remove the plate from the incubator and clean any potential condensation before measuring it into the Arena.
As a guideline, here’s the time it takes to accommodate a new temperature for the Arena chamber or for a plate inside the Arena:
Note: The Arena Peltier power can regulate room temperature within ±5°C. If your room temperature is 28°C, don't expect to reach 20°C. In such cases, select another working temperature, such as 23°C or 25°C, or place the equipment in an air-conditioned room.