Damp Chaser Question

[Farrell]

Hi Greg. No one seems to be biting on this one, so I'll tell you what I think I know. I have been extremely happy with the climate control I have in my shop. A Sears basement-type dehumidifier and an automatic air conditioner. RH stays right at 50%. However, I don't have the need for humidification - RH never gets below 35%.

My shop is a little bit bigger than your box (not a whole lot!). But you might want to consider partitioning off a small room for the piano rather than just a box. That way it could be serviced and tuned in its climate-controlled room. Small room humidifiers are also available - look on the web. I had my old dehumidifier plugged into my DC humidistat because the humidistat on the unit was junk. My new dehumidifier has a humidistat that works quite well. If you used an unregulated humidifier of less than 600W, you could use a DC humidistat to regulate its function.

You could do all this in the little box also - but if you wanted to regulate the temperature in the summer with an AC unit, I think it would be hard to find a small enough unit for the box. Electrical heater bars than run 24/7 do not sound like a hazard to me - IF they are regulated with a humidistat. Also, if they are running 24/7, you don't have enough wattage in there. If you make your little box, maybe a few heater bars and a very small room humidifier both plugged into a DC humidistat will do the trick for you.

I am planning on a similar climate controlled storage area for a theatre I service. It is a small room about 15' by 15'. Two grands are stored there. As I do not need to worry about low RH, I will simply be recommending a small AC unit for the window and a dehumidifier similar to the one in my shop. Or, if they have $$$ to spend, a fancy system designed and installed by folks that provide climate control for laboratories, etc.

As to the effects of pulling the piano out of this idyllic environment and onto the nasty stage with high/low RH and wild swings of temperature??? I think you just need to practice the line: "Hey, it sounded fine before we moved it out here!"

Recommend full climate control for the entire facility!!! Tell 'em it will save on painting costs!

Good luck.

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Greg Newell" <gnewell@ameritech.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>; <MPT@philbondi.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 15, 2002 9:06 PM
Subject: Damp Chaser Question


> Greetings listees,
>          I have a customer who is going to build a piano closet off of 
> their stage. I'd like to ask the opinion of the lists as to how to outfit a 
> humidity control system in this closet. My thought was to daisy chain some 
> systems together or perhaps two or more entire separate systems to keep the 
> piano controlled ( I know, I know, control is an illusion) while it is in 
> storage. Since this is a performance instrument I recommended controlling 
> the box rather than the piano since some part of the Damp-Chaser system 
> will inevitably be visible if mounted on the piano itself. My customer writes;
> 
> The Apartment Complex for our Asian Musical Tenant will be:
> 4'-0'' High
> 6'-0'' Wide
> 11'-0'' Long which equals 264 Cubic Feet inside,
> (less a little bit for corner tangent framing)
> Hope this helps. It sounds like box, rather than piano mounting is
> better.
> The big question for me is ventilation. Electrical heater bars that run
> 24/7 inside a wooden box sounds like a hazard waiting to occur.
> 
> Can someone more experienced than I (even Roger if you're reading these 
> things) suggest a system of components that will adequately cover the need? 
> The piano is in Northern Ohio and is normally subject to RH swings of 
> roughly 15% to 85% or more.
> 
> I'd also like to ask those who have done this what one can expect when 
> pulling the piano out of the closet for a performance. Does it goes 
> unstable right away or what?
> 
> Thanks in advance for your input.
> 
> Greg Newell
> mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net
>