Dampp-Chaser problems

[k.swafford@genie.com]

David Sanderson wrote:

>                                     Try to locate the control unit at
>least  6" from either.  Install as much drying power under the piano's
>soundboard as you can, three rods minimum,  at least 100 watts,
>preferably more.  One fifty watt rod behind the keybed, a thirty-eight
>and a twenty-five triangulating the perimeter of the soundboard.  I
>mount the humidifier in the center of the triangulated rods, suspended
>from the bottom of the frame, not the top as indicated in the
>literature. This pattern has worked very well for me. If I need two
>buckets under the piano, say for a Steinway B or Yamaha C7 I can fit
>them side by side right in the middle on a single set of rods, trying
>to find a hanger support to a beam in the middle somewhere in between
>the buckets.

     Does anyone else have successful experience with installations
similar to this triangulated rod configuration?

     I am trying to deal with a problem piano faculty studio (with
side-by-side Steinway B's) in a building with no climate control.  The
building is very well ventilated and outside weather changes show up
in this studio almost immediately.
     This studio was not so much a problem until a year ago when the
professor coerced the plant facilities people into raising his
thermostat setting.  The resulting raise in temperature has increased
the comfort of _people_ in the studio but has caused a number of
serious problems for the pianos.

     The elevated thermostat setting means that more heated air enters
the room, lowering the relative humidity.  In addition, the fact that
the heating system is on a higher percentage of the time in the studio
means, I think, that the studio is better ventilated than it used to
be;  the professor discontinued use of his room humidifier, because
after the thermostat was adjusted upwards, he was having to fill the
humidifier too often, and it seemed that much of the moisture was
being carried away, out of his studio into the rest of the building,
by the central heating system.  The pianos both have Dampp-Chaser
systems, but the moving air in the studio reduces their effectiveness.

     I need to increase the power levels of the Dampp-Chaser systems
but am reluctant to do so unless I can also deal with the problem of
moving air.  Practical suggestions would be welcome.  Baffles?
 Screens?  String covers?  Remember that I have an unused room
humidifier to work with, if I can keep its output from being "wasted"
on the rest of the building.



                                             Kent Swafford