Piano Apartment

[Farrell]

Apartment? I will assume you are referring to a small storage cubby of some sort for the piano. I have a small theatre locally that has two potentially nice pianos and I have given quite a bit of thought to environmental control of their small storage room. 

Your don't need much. In my shop I have an air conditioner and a little Sears basement dehumidifier. Simply set the AC unit so that it does not get too hot, and set the dehimidifier to kick on at about 50% relative humidity (RH) and you are set.............in my shop. In Ohio you need to consider low humidity conditions (I don't think I am the best expert on that as I don't run into that need in Florida) - although, if you  don't heat it up a bunch, you may not have a low humidity problem - monitor it and see.

Of course, your cubby is not a bigger shop. You may not want to put the AC unit in there. The dehumidifier alone would likely suffice to cover 90% of your concerns. Just monitor and see what other concerns you may have. In a small space, a very small dehumidifier will do. The newer Sear jobs have an electronic humidistat that works pretty well. I set mine at 45% and it is pretty regular about kicking on and off right around 50% RH.

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Greg Newell" <gnewell@ameritech.net>
To: "Piano Technicians, Master" <MPT@talklist.com>; "Pianotech, forum" <pianotech@ptg.org>; "University Technicians, College and" <caut@ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2002 4:36 PM
Subject: Piano Apartment


> Greetings and psychedelic hallucinations, (just kidding)
>     I have a local community college who is doing an intelligent thing.
> They are insisting that the Theater technical guy build an apartment for
> the piano off stage for it's storage when not in use. This must be very
> strong as things will surely be piled on top of it and or built above it
> and it was asked of me what the ideal wood used should be. I'm guessing
> he's willing to do whatever will get the department chair off his back
> but he wrote back with these ideas; Pine, Spruce, Redwood, Cedar, Oak,
> Teak, Mahogany, Ebony? or, particle board, T-111, plywood, plaster
> board, ... ? Me thinks he was trying to be funny with a few of these but
> it is a serious question. They are also asking about a humidity control
> system. Should that be installed permanently in the apartment or on the
> piano or both? and why. Thanks for your thoughts.
> 
> --
> Greg Newell
> mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net
> 
>