Where did the RH Go

[Bill Ballard]

At 3:26 PM -0500 1/13/04, Sarah Fox wrote:
>If....
>
>(1) It was cold outside, and
>(2) there was no insulation in the walls, and
>(3) the radiators in the room were not active, and
>(4) it was still warm (and stable) inside the room,
>then there had to be some considerable source of external heat.  I can only
>conclude that the room received a substantial flow of warm (and dry) air
>from the rest of the house.  I think there's no need to look further for the
>answer to the plummeting RH mystery.  ;-)

I did cherchez la femme, but got to talk with her teenage son 
instead. In this age group they don't know much but he could at least 
tell me that it was a drafty old house and that the bump-out for the 
room where the piano was was also very old (if not original). Last 
Friday was a cold blustery day, and so indeed there was had to have 
been a constant air change to the outside. The 64º had to have been 
the ambient temperature during this air change. What had me ruling 
this out at first was as you say the lack of any "considerable source 
of external heat". The radiators were off (at least the one in the 
corner of the room with the piano), and although this was a 
south-facing room (on a bright sunny day) the rice-paper shade on the 
window by the piano was down. (Both of these actions were following 
my advice to the piano owner.) I know "old'ndrafty" and this wasn't 
that.

There was a second possibility, that either my hygrometer (the $80 
Mannix from PianoTek) or myself were hallucinating. I can't vouch for 
myself (having had my adolescence in the '60s) but the Mannix has 
been behaving consistently right along. I note temp/RH on each 
invoice, "for the record". This Tuesday, I tuned five pianos: two 
living rooms, a nursing home, a rehearsal room kept cool until the 
chamber musicians show up, and the backstage of a movie theater (the 
old-fashioned sized with murals and molding to match). Nobody was 
above 30%. The blue ribbon prize winter was not the nursing home 
(72º/17.5%), but the movie theater (75º/8%). The occasion was for a 
chamber music performance/demo for several waves of  bussed-in 
grade-schoolers starting at 8AM the next morning. When I arrived to 
tune the 1897 Stwy B moved in for the occasion by the chamber music 
group (a regular account of mine), the theater was warming itself up 
for that evening's movies, and sauna-hot air was blasting out of 
large hot air registers, 30' up.

Seems like we've been getting more of this cold arctic air exported 
from our Neighbor to the North since NAFTA. (Maybe it's a return 
favor for all the hot air our president sends up there.) I think 
Dennis Kucinich is the candidate who's promising to repeal that. He's 
got my vote.

Bill Ballard RPT
NH Chapter, P.T.G.

"Lady, this piano is what it is, I am what I am, and you are what you are"
     ...........From a recurring nightmare.
+++++++++++++++++++++