[CAUT] Building humidity now, GREAT!

[Diane Hofstetter]

I think a CAUT research project would be great! 
 
 For me this has been a real problem.  The school received a gift of 10 new pianos when they moved into their new performing arts center.  The service was not provided with the pianos and it has been a real nightmare for me to retain credibility, when they hired me to "tune" the pianos after a whole year of no service on new pianos in a building that changes dramatically.
 
Fortunately, thanks to CAUT these threads have helped!  I'm about to send these new replies off to the college,
 
Thanks everyone!

Diane Hofstetter





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> Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2011 10:14:23 -0600
> From: rnossaman at cox.net
> To: caut at ptg.org
> Subject: Re: [CAUT] Building humidity now, GREAT!
>
> On 1/7/2011 8:46 AM, Gerald Groot wrote:
> > My college has 100 pianos that I tune frequently. The majority are tuned
> > 4 -6 times a year. Of course, concert work is done a lot more frequently
> > than that but, the concert instruments also have Dampp Chasers on them
> > which helps tremendously. The pitch and humidity swings are kept to a
> > minimum. Otherwise, with the rest of the building, humidity swings were
> > horrible!!! In August, it would be 65 %+ RH. October 35 %, December
> > 18-28 %. January through March, 14 %-20 %. Of course, tunings are all
> > over the place.
> >
> > These past 18 months, the CFAC (Covenant Fine Arts Center) was closed
> > for remodeling. They redid a complete renovation of the entire CFAC. 18
> > million bucks worth. Part of the building opened up in October at which
> > time the RH averaged 35 %. Granted, it just opened so they were getting
> > used to adjusing everything. We encountered the same problems Paul, one
> > room was 80 the next was 65 degrees.
> >
> > Supposedly, they spent quite a bundle on a new HVAC system. This past
> > Wednesday and Thursday of this week, it averaged 22 – 26 % RH. One room
> > was 19 %. So much for a new HVAC. I think they’re either over rated or
> > the people responsible for them do not understood how to operate them. ? J
>
> I tune for a small college that did the same thing. After years and
> years of *extensive* and *repeated* discussion with them on humidity
> control, they put in a new HVAC system at huge expense. A year or so
> later, as the dust settled and they tried to get the thing under
> control, they asked me why the pianos still won't stay in tune. I asked
> them about the humidification system. "Humidity?", they said, like they
> had never heard of such a concept. So no, there was absolutely no
> consideration given to humidity control when the system was installed.
> It never crossed anyone's mind, or if it did, it was considered too
> expensive and was deleted. I suspect that is the case there too.
> Ron N