Showing posts with label Important. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Important. Show all posts

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Piano - Why Climate Control is Important For Piano Maintenance

The piano is an elegant musical instrument that can convey and evoke a variety of emotions with a range from soft lilting tones to aggressive frenzied pounding. It is an instrument to be appreciated and adored.

But, if you want to keep it in perfect working order so that it can convey all of the emotions at the right time, it has to be well maintained. Part of a piano's upkeep is to keep the climate around the instrument controlled. If you don't, it is important to know how humidity and temperature change can affect this priceless instrument and how to prevent it.

Humidity Control

First of all, your piano is made of wood. Albeit quality wood products, but it is still susceptible to the same constriction and contraction that occurs under temperature changes and these are just the normal everyday kind of changes. Extreme humidity and dryness can lead to the wood splitting and cracking. These are just the visible outside changes. Worse damage is done to the working parts on the interior.

The biggest damage of extreme temperature change happens to the soundboard which is the most important part of the piano. As it swells up with moisture or shrinks from dryness, it places pressure on the strings and effects the overall tuning of the piano. It can become permanently warped so that the instrument will never sound the dame again.

Humidity affects other parts as well. Anything that is metal can rust if condensation collects inside the instrument. The felt and leather components can become saturated or dried out and crack when the humidity level fluctuates. There are steps you can take to minimize the risk of any damaging occurring due to temperature and humidity levels.

The easiest thing to control is the placement of the piano. Never place it by a window. This not only heats the instrument, but the sun can fade the wood. Also, keep the piece out of the direct line of output for heaters and cooling vents or anything that emits hot and cold temperatures. Placing it on an inside wall is better because the insulation is better than an exterior wall.

For the humidity, which is wet, you can place a dehumidifier in the piano room. Conversely, if you live in a very dry environment, like Colorado in the winter, you want to place a humidifier in the room to put back some moisture. Keeping the temperature of the house at a moderate level, say between 68 and 72 degrees, at all times of the year is also good for the instrument.

If you want this beautiful instrument to remain in good working order, you have to do what you can to control its climate. You spent a lot of money on it and you want to be able to pass it down to your kids and their kids. Aside from climate control, don't forget to give your piano regular tune-ups and maintenance from a professional. If you do experience humidity-related issues, always call a professional in to fix the problem.

Piano - Why Climate Control is Important For Piano Maintenance

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Air Conditioners, What Could Be More Important Than A Good Brand Name

A common misconception about air conditioning equipment is that Brand Name is the best indicator of quality. While it is true
that some brands are better than others, this is not the main criterion you should use when making your buying decision. You
may do yourself a great disservice if you overlook this.

The most important factor regarding central air conditioners and heat pumps, without exception, is the quality of the installation.

Humidity Control

A high-end air conditioning system installed in an unprofessional manor, without regard for quality of installation or proper sizing will not perform any better than a low-end system installed with emphasis on the quality of the installation.

Furthermore, using the above example, the operating and maintenance costs associated with the high-end system may very well exceed that of the low-end system by a large amount over the life of the equipment.

These expenses will show in increased monthly energy costs, maintenance costs, and equipment breakdowns. There are also concerns about indoor air quality, and noise.

One of the benefits of a properly sized air conditioning system is humidity control. The operating characteristics of air conditioners is similar to dehumidifiers.

The evaporator coil temperature is below the dew point temperature when in operation. This results in moisture condensing on the evaporator and reduces the moisture content in the air. This results in lower humidity. The run cycles of an over sized air conditioner will be too short for this dehumidification process to occur.

The run cycles of an undersized system will be too long and may keep humidity levels too low. This system will loose a lot of its capacity to the dehumidification process and only cool effectively when humidity is very low.

Maintenance and repair costs can be higher than normal on an over sized air conditioner. There are components in air conditioners that require replacement from time to time because they wear out. For example the compressor contactor. The contactor is the device that operates the compressor. Each time the compressor starts, the contactor closes. The more often the compressor starts and stops the faster this part will wear out.

The compressor is another example. It is common knowledge the greatest amount of wear on a car engine is at start up. The
same is true of an air conditioner compressor. There is oil in the compressor and each time it cycles off the oil drains from the bearings and gets picked up again at startup. Because there is less oil for lubrication at startup, this is when the greatest amount of compressor wear happens. If your air conditioner cycles on and off 4 or 5 times per hour instead of the normal 2 or 3 times per hour it only makes sense that this causes more wear on the compressor.

These are only some of problems associated with over sized and undersized air conditioning equipment. There are other complications that add to these problems and cost you more money. So when shopping for a new air conditioning system get more than one or two prices and make sure the contractor does proper load calculations so you can avoid these problems.

Air Conditioners, What Could Be More Important Than A Good Brand Name