Safe Temperature For Control Room

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ghetto3jon

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hello. i am building a studio in the loft space of a three car garage (new hampshire). it's got a gas heater that is capable of heating the entire thing (three rooms) pretty good, but i don't want to run the thing while i'm not in it...it's too expensive. i've decided to just heat the control rooom with a small electric heater when i'm not there, and move anything that may be damaged be the cold into the control room when i leave (guitars and stuff...). i have a thermomter in there, and i can regulate the temperature pretty well with the small electric heater...so what is a good temperature to keep the control room at? the lower the temp, the cheaper it is to run the electric heater all the time...so i'm looking for the lowest-safe temp possible. i have normal stuff in there (monitors, tube preamp and compressors, computer monitors, guitars, etc).
 
my home studio, even though its under construction at the moment, follows the rest of the house as far as temperature, but typically 5 degrees colder than the rest of the house because the studio is located further from the furnace than any other room, or set of rooms. Its gotten as cold as 55 at night, as the heat is set for 60 while we sleep. This hasn't damaged any equipment whatsoever, though it has caused for a little guitar and bass tuning if I leave those instruments in the studio, which I often do since I'm a lazy bloke.

Most instruments can survive temperature changes, even though people say they cannot. What matters more is the speed in which the temperature changes. Woods of any sort does not appreciate going from 70 to 30 degrees in 15 minutes. Which is why its a really bad thing to leave a prized guitar in the trunk of your car in the winter. Put it in the passenger area where its warmer, or at least closer in temp to the house.
 
well, right now i have the room control room resting around 55 degrees (here in nh, it's been as cold as 18 at night already). but when it gets that cold, it takes a lot of work for the room to stay at 55...i was wondering if there is any damage in letting the control room drop below 55. the guitars i could take into the house...i guess i'm most concerned about the rack gear. i have a peavey vmp2 that i dropped a pretty penny for, and a lot of other expensive rack stuff that i don't want to see damaged. can sub-55 hurt this stuff?
 
sub 55 won't hurt rackmount gear.

It effects things made of wood, and mechanical things that are greased and oiled such as tape transports. Hard disks in computers and hard disk recorders do not like to be frozen either, and should experience a slow increase in temperature until its warm.

I'm giving you a paranoid view... do know that I've flipped on hard disk recorders and laptops, computers, etc, way below freezing. :)
 
Keep it Dry

More problems with your gear will be related to moisture than to temperature, but they are interrelated. The lower the temp, the higher the Relative Humidity (RH) for a given amount of moisture in the air. You need to keep the room above the point where moisture in the air starts to condense on surfaces ( the dew point). This will cause mega problems (oxidation, rust, fogging meters, electrical shorts, etc etc)
 
A quick web search for "rack heater" yielded some results.

try explosionproofcamera.com.......they list a rack mount enclosure heater for $46.80....might be an alternative....heat the gear, not the room!
 
(thanks for the replies)

"You need to keep the room above the point where moisture in the air starts to condense on surfaces"

what temp is that? i imagine it depends...eh?
 
So long as it is non-condensing then low temperatures will not hurt electronic gear. Tubes do have an operating temerature and it might take longer for them to warm up in a cold room.
 
ghetto3jon said:
(thanks for the replies)

"You need to keep the room above the point where moisture in the air starts to condense on surfaces"

what temp is that? i imagine it depends...eh?
Click to expand...
Get a hydrometer (that measures relative humidity) You want the RH to stay below 100 percent.
 
ghetto3jon said:
(thanks for the replies)

"You need to keep the room above the point where moisture in the air starts to condense on surfaces"

what temp is that? i imagine it depends...eh?
Click to expand...

Yes that's the dew point, it is dependent upon temperature and RH. However it would be unusual to have indoor condensation as typically that requires a rapid temperature change (like the condensation in winter on a single-pane window). For example if you hadn't heated your studio, then suddenly piped in warm moist air, the air striking the cold gear (below the dew point) would leave condensation on the gear.

With wooden instruments you want a stable environment, shoot for 60 degrees F and 40% RH. Store critical electronic gear (like condenser mics) in a case with desiccants.
 
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