humidity question (may be stupid but I'm curious...)

[Stephen Airy]

Two extremes here.

One, you keep an average to good (maybe Steinway, but
basically any piano rated 5 or higher on page 131 of
the Piano Book 3rd edition(Larry Fine)) well-built
full-size (52 to 60 inch) upright or medium size (6 to
7 foot) grand in a very controlled room, with
humidity, temperature, etc. control.  How fast/slow do
you think the piano would go out of tune varying
degrees if it's not played much (i.e. less than 4
hours a week)?  like 10 cents / 20 cents / 50 cents /
100 cents?

Two.  Keep the same piano (although probably the
upright for space reasons) in the bathroom next to the
shower.  (provided the piano could even SURVIVE such
awful treatment).  Would it be reasonable to say that,
if someone takes a 15-minute (or long enough to
totally fog up the mirrors) shower every day and runs
heat lamps for a while (long enough to dry everything
out) after the shower, once every day, do you think
said piano in that room could go a half-step flat or a
full step flat in the course of a few days? or how
fast do you think it would go out? (I do know that no
piano I know of would survive such treatment, but if
one would without totally disintegrating, what do you
think would happen?  (allow for cracking soundboard,
maybe cracking pinblock, splitting bridges, but try in
your mind to keep the action and plate in good
condition and not get the strings too rusty, although
in reality it would be bad for the piano.))

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