[CAUT] rehearsal room climate swings

[Joel A. Jones]

John,

This may be a 'duh' question, but does the new system have a humidifier
on the air supply?   If they do it looks like it needs major monitoring
with  new controls and recalibration.

My suggestion is to find the tradesman who has the screwdriver
and responsible for the operation  of the
new system.  Sit down for coffee and a chat.  My guess as to the
wide swings would be that the U trades are either not allowed
to stabilize the controls of the new HVAC or that they are getting
flack from the desk jockeys that they don't need to run the
humidity system.

In my situation the tradesman had  orders from his boss not to
run the humidity because they would be running two units.
After our chat, and some tweeking heating dept. found that
they needed less heat and ran their controls at 67 degrees with
no complaints.   Combined with the 40% humidity everybody wasc
comfortable and the music faculty with piano, woodwinds and voice
were very helpful with their kudos and praise for the change.

Indeed you have a severe problem.  Hopefully not a
physical problem with no humidifiers for your building.

Joel

Joel Jones, RPT
Madison, WI

On May 16, 2006, at 2:23 PM, John Minor wrote:

> I've been fighting wide swings in temp/humidity in university
> buildings for 13 years now and the tuning stability seems to
> get worse each year. One of our buildings recently underwent
> HVAC updates and the air exchange is now much more rapid that it
> ever was. I suspect this constant high volume flow of outside
> air around the pianos has a great deal of destabilizing effect.
>
> Has anyone tried using Edwards String Covers to shield the
> pianos from all that airflow?
>
> Any ideas?
>
> John Minor
> University of Illinois
>
> The 2 images are from a DICKSON DATA LOGGER tucked under the
> soundboard of a Steinway B in large rehearsal room. It was set
> to log hourly readings.
> <rehearsal room one month.jpg><rehearsal room one year.jpg>