extreme winter weather/DC effectiveness

[Barbara Richmond]

Good idea, Terry.  I suppose I could have the music director call in reports to me since I live 40 miles away.  I could tell there was water in it.  How deep should it be?  

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions, too.

Barbara
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Farrell 
  To: Pianotech List 
  Sent: Saturday, February 17, 2007 8:18 AM
  Subject: Re: extreme winter weather/DC effectiveness


  I highly recommend monitoring two things on a daily basis - water level and humidifier operation duration.

  The guy is adding water every week - but is the unit running dry well before that?

  Plug an old analog electric clock into the same socket as the humidifier unit is plugged into. That way every time the humidifier is powered, the clock will run, and when the humidifier stops, the clock will stop. Actually, you'd want to check that every twelve hours. If the clock never turns off and the humidifier has enough water, then the humidifier is undersized for your environmental conditions.

  If you don't know if the unit is using up all the water and don't know if the unit is running and how long, you can't make any educated decisions about how to modify the system.

  I have a six-foot grand in my living room with about 200 watts of rods under it for dehumidification. Monitoring with the clock showed me that less rods would not lower the RH enough for the humidistat to shut the rods off - it was undersized for my living room.

  Terry Farrell
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    Undercover AND string cover. 6' 4" is kind of a 'tweener size for the grand DC system and maybe, in that environment, a second installed tank would help. Definitely start with the undercover.
    Alan Barnard



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    Original message


    Early this past fall I regulated a 1920s S&S A and installed a full DC system--but no undercover.  The piano is kept closed and covered when not in use.  The church has AC, though to me it felt humid  (for some reason I didn't have my hygrometer with me).   Anyway, before Christmas I tuned the piano again and it was 17 cents low.   Today I tuned it again and it was 14 cents low. Yikes.  The weather here lately has been extremely cold (OK, you nanooks of the north can laugh) and the church was incredibly dry--it didn't register on my not very good hygrometer.  A couple weeks ago, the music director called to tell me that tuning pins were slipping like crazy on the harpsichord I worked on last December.  I thought today that the tuning pins on the piano felt looser than in the past (or was it my imagination?).  AND I noticed that the regulation was off, too.  Geeze.  Apparently the heat is always on in the church--not one of those where it gets turned off and on, and it has felt warm to me the times I've been in there.

    So...you get the picture that the place is dry.  Here is the question--how good a job should the DC system be doing in these circumstances?  Is anybody else experiencing this?  The music director said he is filling the DC tank at least once a week.  I even took a look to see if I had plugged things in the wrong place.  Is there anything else I can do, besides put an undercover on?  Can undercovers make a huge difference in a situation where there isn't significant air movement, etc? 

    I thought about recommending that the church look into a big April-Aire system. 

    Any suggestions are welcome.

    Thanks.

    Barbara Richmond, RPT
    near Peoria, Illinois 
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