I used to be an organ tuner. I live in Southern Ontario, near the great
lakes--Niagara area.  Before my semi-retirement.  In January of 1994 the
owner of the company I worked for sent me out on numerous emergency calls
related to what we call "cyphers" --- pipes sounding when no key is
pressed.   I had the same sort of problem with the organ at the church I
play at--now 35 years there.   A Casavant built in 1967.
Electro-pneumatic.  The humidity was probably well below 40 % RH.  We never
had any humidity  measuring devices then.  Many notes would continue to
sound after a key was pressed. Obviously, the pouch boards were not tight
against the underside of the table of the wind chest (called the sound
board in the UK). Even though the pouch boards are screwed to the table
with springs, it made no difference. The church bought several humidifiers
and several volunteers filled them with water every day.   And that has
been the normal practice since then.   They try to keep the relative
humidity up to about 40 % in the coldest part of January.  That is good for
all the wood-work and for the comfort of humans, as well.   I have a
Zuckermann harpsichord that was put together by someone else, and I don't
worry about it. The humidity in my house probably goes below 40% in the
winter, but I just tune it about every month when I notice the sound being
off, and yeah, it has some hangers in the winter, but I do not try to do
any repairs in the winter.  It goes back to normal in the spring.  Maybe my
comment is of no help, but I felt like making it.  LOL   Cheers,
-rob

On 5 May 2016 at 17:51, Tom Mcgreevy <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Can anyone give me some guidance on what is a good level of humidity to
> maintain for the health of my harpsichord?
> I live in Oregon where for most of the year the humidity is 80% but then
> for two brutal summer months it can drop to 20% or less.  So all year I've
> been running a dehumidifier at about 50% but now it's going to start
> getting dry as a bone around here.
> Any advice would be very welcome.
> Thanks,
> Tom
>
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-- 
Robert Watson
Ontario, Canada

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Note:  opinions  expressed on HPSCHD-L are those of the  individual con-
tributors and not necessarily  those of the list owners  nor of the Uni-
versity of Iowa.  For a brief  summary of list  commands, send mail to
[log in to unmask]  saying  HELP .
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::