On Tue, Dec 9, 2008 at 11:30 AM, Jim Busby <jim_busby at byu.edu> wrote: > List, > > > > The recent post on relative humidity has me wondering what RH really means. > Don Ms funny post about "death" with humidity being too low shows that many > (myself included) don't understand RH. > > > > For instance, when I heard that the RH was 100% in Louisiana I figured the > whole state was under water. > > > > And, obviously life can be sustained when RH registers at near zero, as is > does occasionally in our music building. (Interestingly the static > electricity in such low humidity makes it essential that you "discharge" the > charge in your body before touching an ETD, or before pumping gas, as > multiple fires at gas stations have shown.) > > > > Any scientifically minded tech out there care to enlighten me? > > > > Thanks. > > Jim Busby > Long before I began my career as a piano technician. I had that rare opportunity to observe differences in humidity as a young man. I lived in the Phoenix,AZ area until I was 15 and had only known the dry atmosphere associated with the arid desert climate of that area. We then moved to southwestern Wisconsin, where I currently reside and work. As a boy in AZ an outside RH of 23% was quite high, most days single digit humidities were the rule, it was uncommon to have dew on the grass in the morning unless it was the day after irrigation (long explanation). My first morning in Wisconsin I went for a walk, early, there was a heavy dew on the grass, trees everything, it was there everyday. We were living in the 110 year old farmhouse that had a wood furnace so I was introduced, my first winter, to the effects of the drying effects of a wood burning furnace on a home and it's contents. The outdoor relative humidity was/is rarely below 40% in the daytime and nights it is usually 70% or more. I live in a valley carved by the Mississippi river with smaller rivers and lakes nearby. Our climate would be considered average for much of the northern or eastern united states. Unfortunately we heat our homes wreaking havoc on the available humidity! I have seen homes as dry as an AZ summer in the dead of a WI winter, due to the effects of their forced air furnace or worse still, their wood burner which augments their furnace. I provided myself with a temperature/humidity gauge in order to prove to my customers what I knew, from experience, to be true. To convince them to "condition" the air in their pianos with a Dampp-Chaser system and if necessary an undercover. I have also used it on occasion to persuade them to move their pianos. I've had customers who had pianos in places where windows allowed the sun to shine on the piano at certain hours of the day. I would arrange my next appointment to be there at the time of day the sun would be shining on the piano. I would put my gauge in the bright sunlight coming through the window and watch the temp climb 20 degrees or more above the room temp, then call them in to show them the effects of the sun shining on their piano and help them move it! Verticles only! Mike -- I intend to live forever. So far, so good. Steven Wright Michael Magness Magness Piano Service 608-786-4404 www.IFixPianos.com email mike at ifixpianos.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut_ptg.org/attachments/20081211/8b67f92a/attachment-0001.html>
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