Here in Vienna, Austria, we have recently have had temperatures hovering between +/- 3 or so degrees C. My phone reported outside relative humidity at 22% this morning. By the time this is heated in the house to a livable temperature, my Venta has a hard time working flat out to maintain 45%. I dont recall values this low since I lived in Michigan, and certainly not at this point in the year.
Are others having comparable problems?
David
Not here in the neighborood of Naples in Italy.
It’s cold these days and my workshop, not insulated and not heated, has 14 degrees (outside it’s from 0 to 11) with 65% humidity.
In house at liveable temperatures, humidity goes from about 50 in winter to about 65-70 in the summer.
The harpsichords here don’t need any humidity control. My 2-keyboards used to have its jacks sticking during the most humid days in the sunner, but in 2019 I had it restrung (with Birkett’s wire) and re-regulated. The maker who did this for me (Sebastiano Calì) shaved just a hair off the width (leaving the thickness) of the jacks and I have had no problems since.
We are not far from the sea, maybe this helps to not lower the humidity too much.
My house is fairly large with a somewhat inefficient energy saving, so during the einter my heating sydtem struggles to get the temperature high enough to be confortable, this could be another factor.
Dom
Sorry to hear. I’ve long known that Europe does not generally suffer the problems here in the US Midwest, during low winter temperatures, with very low outside humidity becoming even lower indoors.
I can share one tip from long experience - if at all possible, have the instrument and humidifier in a room closed off from the rest of the house. It is remarkable how even the crack under a door allows a significant amount of water vapor to escape, making humidification far more challenging.
In Minnesota (and I’m told as well at the music museum in South Dakota), we cannot set our sights on humidity above 35%. The window and other building condensation is too damaging.
Bruce Jacobs
Saint Paul, MN
Here in Amsterdam I have needed to humidify, which isn’t normally necessary unless it is an extremely cold winter (that is, when the canals freeze). We have had lots of very sunny days, and it has been cold though not freezing.