[CAUT] Piano Garage for Temperature & Humidity Control

[Leslie Fitzpatrick]

I was on a stage with the house lights off I had a hygrometer I checked the humidity and it was 62 percent. I started tuning and
it was going fine then someone turned all the house lights on and it got really hot. Then I checked the hygrometer which I had
sitting on the piano and it started dropping and it went all the way to zero and my tuning fell completely apart. So I retuned it.
and hoped for the best.I install a lot of climate control systems in Tulsa area and they really  help stability, but not very much
in this situation.

Les Fitzpatrick
<http://www.fitzsupershop.com

Piano Technician
ham call sign K5FPT
  -----Original Message-----
  From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org]On Behalf Of Jeff Tanner
  Sent: Friday, November 17, 2006 10:53 AM
  To: College and University Technicians
  Subject: Re: [CAUT] Piano Garage for Temperature & Humidity Control




  On Nov 16, 2006, at 12:12 PM, reggaepass at aol.com wrote:


    I don't have any personal experience with this, but I would imagine that taking a piano out of an "ideal" environment into one
that has substantially more or less relative humidity (+/- 25% !) just hours before the concert would DEstabilize it. Anyone out
there have experience with this?



  I think it depends.  We had a feasibility study for a mid size concert hall done about 5 years ago.  I requested a climate
controlled closet for pianos.  The architect claimed he'd built lots of performance venues and made the claim that "most" places
preferred to have the piano be at whatever the hall climate was.  I think once you turn on the hot lights, it really doesn't
matter.


  Our pianos stay on stage in our small recital hall, even though we have closets designed and included specifically for the
pianos.  I know I've seen changes in our piano just from turning on the "house" lights during the day, and the change is
significant enough that I changed my tuning time from first thing in the morning to just before recitals begin.  I suspect you are
more likely to  have a temperature change than much of a humidity difference, and the piano will react almost immediately to
temperature.  So I don't see how you can get around some degree of instability either way.





  Jeff Tanner, RPT
  University of South Carolina






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