[CAUT] large and rapid humidity changes!

[Jeff Tanner]

On Nov 27, 2006, at 12:28 PM, Paul T Williams wrote:

>
> Hi list,
>
> We have a classroom/recital hall with a huge humidity problem.  Has  
> anyone else had this problem:
>
> The room seats about 200 and has a Steinway D from the late 70's  
> and a harpsichord.  The room can change by 30-40% or more in a  
> day!  Over the T-Day  weekend I put in one of those small  
> humidistat from Pianotek and it showed a range of 24-80%!!!  Not  
> only are my tunings worthless for recitals if I tune in the morning  
> and the concert is in the evening (as some days, that is the only  
> time the room is available),  but it has got to be wrecking havock  
> on the instruments. It doesn't have a piano life saver system in  
> it, and I wonder how much it would help with such wild swings.  I  
> and all the faculty have complained about it (apparantly for years  
> prior to my getting here this year) and nothing gets done.
>
> Can I do more that just cover them and go ahead and put a DC system  
> on it?  They do have thick blanket style covers on them.
>
> Sweating to the oldies in Lincoln....
>
> Paul

I have a similar problem, but I can't say with quite those extremes.   
Same size hall, and it had to be called, and used as a "lecture" hall  
to be included with the building plans.  The room is "supposed" to  
have humidification and dehumidification capability, but that is only  
as reliable as the cheap sensor which activates it.  We have had some  
pretty wild extremes, as much as 20 point changes during the course  
of a day, 30+ point swings in 24 hours, with 40 or more over a  
weekend.  Not as "deep cycling" as your room, but unstable none the  
less.  Even on what would be considered a "stable" day, there is  
enough change from the house lights and hot bodies and doors opening  
and closing all day to dirty a good clean tuning up good during the  
course of a day.

Our faculty doesn't want the D/C systems on the pianos because they  
would be visible from the audience.  Fine with me.  A D/C system  
unplugged from the time rehearsals and recitals begin around 4 pm,  
enduring rehearsals and programs under the lights with 200 plus  
breathing people in a small room seems like it would invite  
instability.  Then, if the stage workers or whoever has rehearsals  
until midnight don't remember to replug it afterward... ....well, to  
me it would seem a D/C in that setting would have limited rewards, if  
not even be counter productive.

After my first year here, I moved my tuning reservation to the  
afternoons.  Classes run from around 9:30 and 10 am to 2:00 and 2:30  
pm.  The organ professor had the next couple of hours, followed by  
rehearsals and recitals.  Our organ professor was glad to switch with  
me, preferring the morning times.  Aside from the climactic  
instability, my other line of reasoning for the change was that if I  
was locked in to morning tuning times, that made it next to  
impossible for me to get into most faculty studios which are rarely  
available after 9:30 or 10 am.

Faculty studios are still difficult to schedule, but my recital  
tunings are much more stable.

On the other hand, if classes are preventing you from tuning later in  
the day, you have a different kind of problem.

Jeff

Oh, we have to keep the harpsichords out until they are needed.  This  
space is used for almost everything except concert band and orchestra.


Jeff Tanner, RPT
University of South Carolina



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