room climate control

Alan Barnard tune4u@earthlink.net
Wed, 13 Jul 2005 22:43:24 -0500


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Piano: 1903 Steinway S, nice home, older lady, excellent classical pianist, A/C seldom used even though we have tropical, steamy summers. Installed a full DC about 14 months ago, tuned it two months later. No undercover, for reasons too complicated to explain.

Story: Called for 6 month tuning, she said it "sounded okay" and she'd like to wait 'til it's been a year (We've heard THAT before, haven't we?). Tuned the piano this morning (12 months). The center notes were about 3 to 7 cents sharp (the remains of Hurricane What'sitsname just dumped two days of rain on us), the bass was ON, the treble was CLOSE, the high treble was ON. I did very little actual pin turning to tune that piano.

Result: She said: "Isn't that great. I can just tune it once a year!"  Hmmm .... happy customer, annual tuning fees cut in half for her—and for me, dang it. I've got her half talked into a full reg/voicing job which the piano desperately needs, so that'll help make up for it.

Moral: Once again, I have seen and heard results that make me a staunch, avid, perhaps rabid believer in DC systems. As long as they are kept plugged in and maintained (a big IF in many cases...) they really, really work.

Alan Barnard
Salem, Missouri


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Piano Forte Supply 
To: pianotech@ptg.org
Sent: 07/13/2005 4:59:41 PM 
Subject: room climate control



I have a client with a 7' Kawai grand in a basement studio.  The Relative Humidity  is always on the high side (60%).  I urged him to monitor the humidity with an electronic hygrometer and to get a dehumidifier.

He did this, however the controller on the dehumidifier in very inaccurate.  With the controller set at 40%, it cut out when the humidity is still above 60%.  The manufacturer told him they are all not precise.  He has searched for higher end units, but even the manufacturers of these do not guarantee the precision of their controllers.

I would prefer to control the environment in the studio because it "should" be a straight forward thing to do.  I feel a Piano Life Saver System will simply always be fighting the higher humidity in the room.

I have thought of using a Piano Life Saver humidistat to control a simple room de-humidifier.  Would this work?  Would he need a relay  between the humidistat and the de-humidifier?

Any thoughts, and especially experiences, welcome.

Jurgen Goering
www.pianofortesupply.com 
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