Do I need a humidifier for my studio?

As I keep all my guitars out on stand now...




My room can get up 90F in the summer (especially with the DAW fully fired up)  and as low as 65F in the winter.


For the summer I have a portable room AC unit (10K BTU, room is ~19'X17') but I only run it when mixing or not working ion the DAW but still on the laptop, and only when the room is above 78F. Windows are never opened.

Do I need a humidifier?

In most cases, if you are comfortable, so is your gear. Extremes of humidity and temperature will take a toll on acoustic instruments, while electric stuff is more forgiving. You probably want to add humidity in winter and remove it in summer.

+1 for getting a hygrometer. Much cheaper (and quieter) than a humidifier. Might as well find out if low humidity is a problem first. 

@Bapu... you probably don't want the thing blasting right at the guitars. Let it set the humidity for the room so the guits soak up the moisture evenly. Seriously though get an accurate gauge to make sure what the humidity is. It will save on electricity and make it so you aren't adding TOO much moisture in the air. Cheers.

You want to make the room more humid, or is it a de-humidifier you are asking about?

I've heard from friends that actually like to live in Arizona when it's hot that they leave a 5-gallon bucket of water in a corner to help keep some humidity in the house.  They also put plastic wrap over the toilets (or should that be "terlets?") to keep the water from evaporating out when they go on trips.

NOT my kind of place to live!

The Arizona climate is supposedly perfect for easing arthritis and other chronic pain. Seems to be a little too wacky otherwise for my tastes though.

Jonbouy


Ah so it is a humidifier that's required.

You can tell what a damp patch I live in...

I've never come across one before.

:)

...nevermind..excuse me. 

Get air conditioning becuase when it's 90 degrees in therer I will refuse to record with you 

Mmmmkay?

Distilled water works best in those. The less impurities in the water, the better the piezoelectric element can create water vapor (mist). The one I had, had a bunch of multicolored LED's and it would fade between colors or do other little light show tricks.

I used to have one of those!  I lost a couple of the little plastic pieces that held up the center part though...  Someday I'll probably get another - they're fun to stare at.

Hi craig ... you can get parts at that link. A whole new one is expensive.

Beepster

Right on, Bub. I want lava lamps, wave machines and fish tanks. I swear I'm not a stoner. :-)

I'm not either, but I'm with you on the lava lamps and that type of thing. It creates a mood. I have big plans for my music room some day.

When I was 16ish, I lived next door to a lumber mill. They would get 4 x 8 sheets of plywood delivered in huge pallets, and there was a thin throwaway sheet on the top and bottom of every pallet. I knew the guy who owned it and asked him to save the top/bottom sheets for me. I took the scrap carpet from my brothers house he remodeled, stapled it to the 4 x 8 sheets, stood them up all around my bedroom, and splattered fluorescent paint all over the carpet and flipped on the black light. I had an old Radio Shack strobe light that I set facing up. I made a cone shape out of black construction paper and poked pin holes in it, and sat a glow in the dark skull on top of the cone. It was really quite a show. We (my friends and I) took string and rubbed fluorescent paint all over it and taped it up all over the ceiling.

It was awesome. Plus ... that room was dead quite with the carpet over every inch of the walls. Not a ms of anything.

The wife would murder me if I ever did something like that now. LOL! I'll have to do it in a more acceptable way this time. ;)

Bub


Hi craig ... you can get parts at that link. A whole new one is expensive.

Thanks, but I'll probably want a new one for two reasons...  1) I don't even know if I still have it in storage and, 2) The one I had was on a tall tube filled with water so it took way too much water (it evaporated quickly), had bubbles going up the tube and there were just too many lights. 
 
Your's looks a bit more subtle and I wouldn't really mind just having one without LED lighting actually.  Somewhere I still have my lava lamp too, but it might be too old to try (after you use them for a while the stuff inside just wants to stay as a single large blob instead of the far more intertaining smaller balls of whatever).