Printed from smellbook.com/smells/warm-electronics. This printout keeps the entry for Warm Electronics itself: its description, reference card, Connections, questions, evidence, related smells, record details, states, names and citation. It leaves out your own notes, the map, the lists of paths, routes, stories and fragrance directions, and the lists headed “Also linked to” (other entries that share its place or material) and “Linked from”; they are on the page online. The entries this one links to are still printed under Connections and Related smells.
Categories and types group entries for browsing; they are editorial, not evidence. How smells are grouped.
A warm manufactured smell associated with powered electronics, plastics, dust and gently heated components.
Setting: manufactured. An editorial word for the kind of place or occasion the smell belongs to, not a smell word.
Warm electronics give a dry, faintly plastic smell with a dusty, slightly toasty edge. EDITORIAL
Named in the VERIFIED claims about this smell: not a list of what it is made of, and not its cause.
Links SmellBook records for this entry: molecules and related smells. EDITORIAL links are chosen by SmellBook editors and VERIFIED links come from VERIFIED claims. Nothing here is a ranking, and a molecule is not presented as the cause of the smell.
QUESTIONS ABOUT WARM ELECTRONICS
Warm electronics give a dry, faintly plastic smell with a dusty, slightly toasty edge. The odour is subtle at first and grows as devices run for longer, with heated plastic and settled dust forming a warm, flat note. It can be close to a hairdryer or a radiator switched on for the first time in autumn.
It is met at computer desks, around games consoles and in electronics shops, and near older devices that run warm. Many people notice it in small rooms after hours of use or when a machine is switched on after a long rest.
Typical settings: computer desk, electronics shop, older device.
One VERIFIED scientific claim from one published source is recorded for this entry: Personal computers and perceived air quality. This claim says only what its source supports, in the scope shown with it.
5 molecules are named in this claim; see the evidence for the role the claim gives them. The claim does not say the molecules this claim names shape the smell.
Warm Electronics is descriptive only and should not be used as a test for equipment safety or overheating.
Words that are easy to mix up: Is every warm smell spicy?
No historical source or heritage record is linked to this entry yet.
Answers marked EDITORIAL are written by SmellBook editors to describe the experience and add no scientific fact. Answers marked VERIFIED point to claims on published sources, checked against each source's own summary where one was available (each claim's page says how); what each claim supports is in its own text and scope.
Scientific evidence · 1 claim
Personal computers and perceived air quality
Three-month-old personal computers hidden behind a screen in an office raised the share of people dissatisfied with the perceived air quality from 13% to 41%; each was a sensory pollution source of 3.4 olf, and phenol, toluene, 2-ethylhexanol, formaldehyde and styrene were among the chemicals detected.
Office exposures of female subjects; the detected chemicals did not by themselves explain the effect.
How this was found: How people experienced it. People reported what they noticed, felt or judged, in interviews, smell walks or rated air quality. Source: primary study; sensory or perception work.
Z. Bako-Biro, P. Wargocki, C. J. Weschler & P. O. Fanger
DOI 10.1111/j.1600-0668.2004.00218.xEach molecule is named by the claim shown after it. The claim does not say these molecules shape the smell. About molecules in SmellBook
Links chosen by SmellBook editors, not a ranking.
Associations can vary strongly by person, place and culture.
PATHS FROM HERE
Each step is a relationship SmellBook editors recorded in the knowledge graph, named as it is published there. Paths are not ranked or personalised, and they do not mean the smells smell alike.
Each step is a molecule that a VERIFIED claim names for both smells, in whatever role the claims state. Sharing a molecule does not mean two smells smell alike.
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WHERE THIS SMELL APPEARS
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FOR RESEARCHERS AND EDITORS
Identity, revision history, corrections and how to cite Warm Electronics.
CULTURAL: This entry's associations depend on context, language, memory or culture; its description and smell words are editorial. It says nothing about research or historical evidence; evidence for this entry is shown separately: VERIFIED.
How this entry is identified and named, for citing it or matching it with other records.
SmellBook SB-0139 — Warm Electronicssmellbook:smell:warm-electronicshttps://smellbook.com/smells/warm-electronicsSmellBook. (2026). Warm Electronics (revision 4, 2026-10-06). SmellBook Public Atlas. smellbook:smell:warm-electronics. https://smellbook.com/smells/warm-electronics@misc{smellbook_warm_electronics_r4,
author = {{SmellBook}},
title = {Warm Electronics},
year = {2026},
note = {SmellBook Public Atlas, revision 4, 2026-10-06, smellbook:smell:warm-electronics},
url = {https://smellbook.com/smells/warm-electronics}
}TY - ENCYC ID - smellbook-warm-electronics-r4 TI - Warm Electronics AU - SmellBook T2 - SmellBook Public Atlas PY - 2026 DA - 2026/10/06 ET - revision 4 UR - https://smellbook.com/smells/warm-electronics N1 - SB-0139; smellbook:smell:warm-electronics; resolver https://smellbook.com/id/smell/warm-electronics ER -
The citation names revision 4 of 2026-10-06, so a reader can tell exactly which version was cited. Citing records what was read; it does not grant a licence.
Warm Electronics is descriptive only and should not be used as a test for equipment safety or overheating.
Editorial description expanded to answer what it smells like and where you meet it; independently reviewed.
Created 2026-09-22 · Updated 2026-10-06Dataset history In the SmellBook dataset since the first of three dataset releases of 2026-09-30; changed in the first of two dataset releases of 2026-10-05 (descriptors).
No correction notices published for this entry. Corrections policyEVIDENCE MATTERS
SmellBook separates cultural association, community perception, verified evidence, prediction and experimental relationships rather than presenting them as the same thing. Read the evidence guide ↗ See the evidence coverage report ↗