extreme winter weather/DC effectiveness

[Dean May]

Barbara,

 

Don't hesitate, add the undercover.

 

Dean

Dean May             cell 812.239.3359 

PianoRebuilders.com   812.235.5272 

Terre Haute IN  47802

  _____  

From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Barbara Richmond
Sent: Friday, February 16, 2007 10:47 PM
To: Pianotech
Subject: extreme winter weather/DC effectiveness

 

Howdy,

 

Hope you're all nice and cozy, it's been dang cold here.  I've got a
question for you DC experts, I would have called DC themselves, but I didn't
get home in time this afternoon.  

 

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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