In-floor heating & pianos

[Jerry Anderson]

>A former customer who is buying a house in Germany is worried
>about the effect of the "Fussbodenheizung" (heating coils in
>the floor instead of radiators or air ducts) on her grand piano
>and harpsichord.  She was told by a piano dealer in Munich that
>this kind of heating is "death to wood of any kind" and that at
>the very least she would have to put an insulating mat underneath
>the instruments and humidify the air (Damppchaser, etc.).
>
>Does anyone out there have personal experience with the effect of
>this type of heating on instruments?  Is the dealer's advice
>valid or exaggerated?  (By the way, the owner is a professional
>musician with high-quality instruments which are used and
>maintained regularly.)
>
>Please reply by e-mail to the address below, unless you think
>the information would be of interest to the list.  Thanks for
>all the wonderful info on Pianotech!
>                             Dan Lindblom.
>lindblom@saturn.montclair.edu


There were a lot of apartment buildings built here in the
Paris region of France with this kind of  in-floor heating
system, especially durring the 1960's.
The system was subsequently abandonned,  I
believe because it was both relatively uncomfortable
and bad for peoples health.  At least that's its reputation.
People with blood circulation trouble in their legs really
suffered.  I had the experience of living in one of these
apartments for a couple months and had a chronic cold
the whole time.  It's a strange sensation having the bottoms
of your feet warmed all the time.

As far as pianos go, our company has sold pianos to people with
this kind of heat, and I've seen the consequences:  the pianos
go rapidly out of tune, and soon have all sorts of problems
with loose pins, loose screws, noisey keys, cracked
soundboards, etc. ,.  The problem seems to be that the
heat radiates up through the instrument as if it was in a hot box.
Buffer material like pieces of carpet  or plywood seem to help
marginally but don't seem to me like an adequate long term
solution if  an owner really wishes to preserve his instrument.
I've not seen the problem treated  with a dampchaser, but I don't
think the dampchaser  would do much about the heat radiating
right up into the piano from a few inches away (in an upright).
The under rim of the grand seems to trap the heat onto the board.
Our sales people discourage buyers in such sitations because
of garantee problems we've had.  And Paris has a moderate
winter compared to Munich .  I agree with the Munich dealer.
Trust him.  Nobody likes to give up a sale.

Jerry Anderson