Here's what DC has to say about it. Your initial cost savings may be far exceeded by electricity costs to operate. http://www.pianolifesaver.com/english/comparisons.php I've had clients with room humidifiers, and most are very noisy. The ultrasonic type emit small water droplets which can dry into white spots on pianos and furniture. And they need regular cleaning to avoid mold, and also need lots of water to refill. Certainly the ideal setup is for the entire room to be comfortable, if you can manage it. A small practice room is a good bet. If it's lined with soft acoustic panels, high humidity might not be a good match. --Cy-- ABQ, NM ----- Original Message ----- From: Dr. Henry Nicolaides To: College and University Technicians Sent: Monday, November 10, 2008 12:55 PM Subject: [CAUT] damp chaser vs room humidifers Hi list, Since the subject is being discussed...is there a preference? I have small grands in practice rooms, two piano studios (larger rooms), and several pianos in choral and orchestra rooms. Given the large size of the choral and orchestra rooms, systems in the pianos are the only viable option. However, in the smaller studio and practice room does a humidifer make sense. Given the cost difference and my bbudget or lack thereof, I might get a "good" humidifer for 69-79 dollars easier than the dampp chaser system. Granted in the Spring the dehumidifer rod would be needed. And, for the studios where there are two pianos the cost differential makes more sense. It is now only the beginning of the heating season and the RH today in the studio rooms borders 30%. The pianos have not had the advantage of humidification over the years. We have three Baldwin R's that were purchased in 1996. All have little to no bearing with visible splits at the bridge pins. Two have one or two cracks in the soundboard. I have a client that had no bearing in her older Baldwin M. Her complaint was the two octaves above the middle c octave were "dead". Two months of room humidification set at RH of 50% restored enough bearing to liven those octaves to her satisfaction. Any comments? FYI, I am the new piano technician at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. I look forward to meeting you one the web and perhaps next Summer at convention. email: henryn at siu.edu Henry Nicolaides School of Music Southern Illinois University Carbondale, IL 62901 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Get 5 GB of storage with Windows Live Hotmail. Sign up today. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut_ptg.org/attachments/20081112/8f4055d0/attachment.html>
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