Cold weather worries

crazeydazey · Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 2:15 pm Post subject: Cold weather worries

Hi All..

As some of you may (or may not) know, I'm building a recording studio in my garden and it's almost there.

One of my worries was freezing cold weather damaging my equipment.. (have you ever left a mobile phone in a car on a freezing cold night, then tried using it the day after.. it takes about 9 hours to get from one screen to the other because the liquid in the LCD freezes up, I can't see this been too healthy for my equipment)

I moved my Alesis DM5 drums in there the other day and went to play them today (after 2 pretty dam cold days) and my worries came true.. (it took a while for the display to change whilst flicking through the drums), nothing too serious (yet) and it came back to normal, but it's worried me even more and I have a lot more equipment with LCD displays to move in there..

Am I right to be worried about this or is this ok??

Do I need to buy some kind of heater that I can leave on ALL THE TIME Shocked

that kicks in when it's really cold to take the chill out (hope not.. that worries me for fires and my electric bill)

anyone got any advice??

Cheers

Daz

DES · Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 10:13 pm Post subject:

As a general rule, electronics don't like heat. Alot of effort goes into keeping them cool. However, as you have seen extreme cold has it's own issues. Your worries about putting a heater in are well founded - expense and fire hazards. It would be better if you could find a way to keep the chill out that didn't involve fire or elecric heaters. Solar can work during the day but night is when it will get coldest. Perhaps some sort of heat pump system? Operating expenses would be a lot less then running electric heaters...but installation can be expensive (unless you can do most of the work yourself).

The other issue you need to be concerned about is extreme temperature changes. As much as electronics don't like heat, going from very cold to warm or hot and back again stresses electronic connections - solder joints and such.

If you had no other alternatives you might be able to get away with leaving the sensitive electronic equipment - like the DM5 module - turned on. Probably not the ideal situation - but it would be cheaper and less hazardous then running an electric heater.

Keysandslots · Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 6:08 am Post subject:

I have a space heater that plugs into a regular electrical outlet and looks like an old-fashioned wall radiator. I think it has oil in it instead of water. Takes awhile to warm up but there are no exposed heating elements, no fire, nothing hazardous. I actually use it in my studio/office, works great. You might need a couple for a big room but that's probably still less-expensive than most other permanent options.

It looks like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Kenwood-Filled-Electric-Radiator-Heater/dp/B000653KLU

Randy

crazeydazey · Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 7:59 am Post subject:

Brrrrrrrilliant (did you see what I did there?? sorry)

Thanks guys, I think I will get one of these oil/water filled heaters, it's only a small room and I don't want it to be constantly or instantly red hot just not freezing for long periods of time.. Smile

I assume these are just always plugged in and left on then set by timers/thermostats??

Are they expensive to run??

Daz

DES · Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 9:16 am Post subject:

Forgot about those which is funny cause I used to have one, LOL. They are a lot safer but they are still electric heaters. IIRC the one I used to have was by Delonghi (sp?) and had two switches - like 900, 1200 and 1500 Watts. Low setting might work for you. They do have a thermostat on them. Just watch your electric bill....

Keysandslots · Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 12:13 pm Post subject:

Mine has two dials, one with a heat setting and I can't remember what the other was (I'm at work at the moment). I put it on high for a little while to warm up the room and then leave it on low while I'm in there. I'm not sure how much power it eats.

You could just plug it into a timer that is plugged into the power outlet. At least you're in England, where I assume you are not apt to get a bunch of consecutive -15c (or worse) days.

Randy

DES · Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 12:57 pm Post subject:

Something else you could look into - electric base board heating. I have two 8 foot units that I was going to install at one time but ended up not doing it. One for the studio and one for the shop. You can connect them to a wall mounted thermostat - set it for the minimum temp you want. Probably more efficient then the portable types. Assuming your studio has adequate insulation it should do the job well.

Aciphecs · Joined: Nov 05, 2010 Posts: 77 Location: Michigan, USA

I personally like this option Wink

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