[CAUT] HVAC information - Data Loggers

[Porritt, David]

Don:

I bought one of these a couple of years ago.  It died very young and the supplier (not the one you listed) replaced it.  Soon after that the new one died.  How long have you had yours??  I'm hoping they have been improved since I got mine.

dp

David M. Porritt, RPT
dporritt at smu.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Don Mannino
Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 9:54 AM
To: grahampianos at yahoo.com; caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] HVAC information - Data Loggers

 Perhaps someone has already mentioned this and I missed it, but I have come across a great tool for diagnosing and illustrating environmental issues.  It is a relatively inexpensive and small data logger.

http://www.thermoworks.com/products/logger/usb_loggers.html

I like the TW-USB-2, which costs $82 and is quite accurate.

You install a small program with USB drivers in your computer, then plug in the data logger.  You tell it through the software how often you want to take measurements, and when to start measuring.  You then take the data logger out of the computer, and place it in the room you want to check.  It's only a few inches long, so can be taped under a piano easily.

After whatever length of time you want recorded, you plug the logger back into the computer and it makes a very nice graph of the temperature and humidity levels.  This can be printed.

It seems to me that this kind of a tool would be a great aid in illustrating how severe the conditions are, and armed with this chart and some backup materials related to humidity levels and piano soundboards, you would be better prepared to discuss the need for better controls in a building.

I attached a PDF of one of the charts, a measurement of the overnight conditions in our Shigeru Kawai showroom here in California.  You can just see the temperature and humidity bump up at the very end when I picked it up and carried it to my office to download the readings in the morning.

Don Mannino