Rich Lazar inquires:

> Since I am not a technician, my only experience with this subject is
> hearing that one should try to keep the room at a constant temperature
> and humidity for the benefit of both the piano and the reproducing
> player mechanism.

People appreciate uniform humidity/temperature levels too!

> Living in the Chicago area, I use an indoor humidifier in the winter
> and usually keep the doors and windows closed year round.

The bits of advice I can offer you is this:

1) Make sure your piano is not standing in direct sunlight

2) Make sure it is not located along an outside wall.

3) Try for a uniform humidity level of 42%.   Check this with a
high-quality humidity gauge.

This relative humidity (R.H.) is difficult to achieve in Chicago-land
without the aid of a Dampp-Chaser system for your piano.  I always
install them in the pianos I maintain in this part of the country.
It takes a lot of the worry out of the equation.

> Also, our home tends to heat up during the day in the winter (without
> heat) because we have floor to ceiling windows facing direct sunlight
> which radiate the heat.  Sometimes I must turn on the air conditioning
> in winter to cool it down.

Maybe you should close your drapes if the sun-load is too great.
This is especially true if the Piano is the recipient of any of this
radiation!

> Would it be "certain death" for the piano if I opened the windows and
> let some cold fresh air in?

It would be both a thermal and humidity "shock" for the piano.  At
least air conditioning accomplishes this less drastically.

Just make sure that your air conditioning compressor has a crankcase
heater in it if you run it in the Winter, or else it will "slug" and
blow it out if the oil gets too cold!  An expensive mistake!

Faithfully,

Richard Schneider, President
Schneider Pipe Organs, Inc., Kenney, IL   61749-0137
(Dead-center of the "other" Illinois!)  (Who obviously dabbles in a
lot of different disciplines, other than strictly pipe organs!)