[CAUT] large and rapid humidity changes!

[Joel A. Jones]

Barbara,

Definitely records keeping makes heads turn as John has
shown.

However, I don't think the size of the school enters the picture
as much as the administration of the institution.  If the
'suits' want to control the situation then I would guess
the technician will be out of the picture.   If the administration
has confidence in your cooperation with the HVAC people
then you will have a chance to make a difference.

I was in this situation at UW and it worked well for me.
Basically we made friends with HVAC and took the
'man with the screwdriver' to lunch.   It surprised him
that anyone cared.  After explaining what the problem
was we can great response.  HVAC started checking with
me as to how well they were doing.

It also helped to send a few memos of praise to the
physical plant administrators in regards to how well
the maintenance crew was helping the pianos.

Big or little the solution goes smoother with a big
dose of humor  and  recognition for a job well done.

Joe
Joel Jones, RPT
Madison, WIl
On Nov 27, 2006, at 11:59 AM, Barbara Richmond wrote:

> Paul,
>  
> Maybe if you kept some records of what's happening and then you and 
> the head of the School of Music went and had a "What can be done about 
> this situation?" meeting with the folks at physical plant (or whatever 
> your school calls it).
>  
> When I was on staff at Illinois Wesleyan, I established an amiable 
> working relationship with the head & staff of physical plant and then 
> was able to deal with a heating/cooling issue (and lots of other 
> stuff) with reasonable success.  A good relationship with that 
> department is always a good idea, I think---though the dynamics may be 
> different at a big school.
>  
> Barbara Richmond, RPT
> near Peoria, Illinois
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Paul T Williams
>> To: caut at ptg.org
>> Sent: Monday, November 27, 2006 11:28 AM
>> Subject: [CAUT] large and rapid humidity changes!
>>
>>
>> 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 (apparently 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
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