humidity issues in the house with instruments

[Quacking ducks]

Hi all, I was wondering what to do about low humidity in your house when you have instruments. I play the harp. we just a wood fireplace insert put in and we love having it, but it has lowered the humidity in the house to about 22%. For harps the humidity should be between 40-60%. I've already had 1 string break on my harp. Has anyone had this issues? what did you do? we've been boiling water on the stove a lot but it hasn't really helped much. Thank you

 

[jher77]

The coldest or at least colder room than the fireplace will have a higher relative humidity percentage since the air is cooler.

 

[azurbanclucker]

Get a humidifier and keep it in the room where your harp lives. If you have a hard case or even a soft bag-type cover, you can put a damp towel in a ziplock bag (so the towel doesn't cause any damage or rotting issues ) in there. Control the moisture level by opening and closing the ziplock's zipper until you can get a fairly consistent humidity level.

I would also suggest you speak with your tuner/harp luthier about it and see what they suggest. You don't want to damage your harp accidentally trying to keep it properly maintained.

You also need a hygrometer in your harp case, and one in the room so you can manage the humidity properly.

(source: viola players in the house, RH in the single digits all winter. We know your pain)

 

[Canina]

I have damp in my home and haven’t bothered overhauling my flute in years because it will be a waste of hundreds… Can’t wait to live somewhere my case won’t go mouldy.

 

[sandburRanch]

There are some museums that need a strict controlling method of humidity . You might get some information by researching what they recommend and do .

 

[Dinogrrl]

May want to keep your harp in a case/cover when it's not in use. It'll be easier to control humidity in a small area than the entire room or house. Most violin-family players I knew use a humidity gauge and something like a Damp-it in their cases to control humidity. My mom is an oboist and uses...um...drat, can't think of the name, but she got it from a cigar shop, actually, to put in her oboe case (since cigars are also quite sensitive to humidity!).

...heh you've reminded me that I actually need to go check my baroque violin, been crazy humidity changes here lately and I'm dumb enough to not have any humidity control in its case despite it having gut strings >>...

 

[musikfan]

I'm a pianist and I always have some degree of issues with my piano when the seasons change. This winter I'm burning a coal stove, so I know that it's probably going to be brutal on my piano. I plan to have a good humidifier in the same room that will hopefully help to decrease the intensity of the dryness. I'd put a Damp Chaser system in the piano, but I don't have 500$ to spend on it right now.

 

[sandburRanch]

A helpful link to understand and control humidity .
and a
Moisture % calculator . This can be useful to determine the moisture % of wood . With a scale that weighs grains a tiny piece of wood in the area can be calculated for moisture daily if necessary . 6% - 7% moisture is a
good number to shoot for indoor settings .
http://www.dpcalc.org/index.php

https://calculator.academy/moisture-content-calculator/