Music Room Temperature

[nweekes]

I converted my basement into a guitar room one decade ago. It has premium insulation, hardwood floors, climatized room with industrial humidifier, etc. I have kept an expensive plug-in heater in this room that turns on occasionally to keep the room at ~70°. That heater died today. I am hesitant to buy another heater with the horror stories I hear of fires. What is the coldest I dare let my room get? Obviously I have heat in my home but since this is the basement it gets much colder.

Any suggestions to keep this room well heated... safely?

Thank you,
Nathan

[The Bard Rocks]

What is the rest of your home heated with? It is usually cheaper and simplest to work off that. Most furnaces are in the basement, which makes it easy to run the pipes or ducts.

[Godfather]

Originally Posted by The Bard Rocks

What is the rest of your home heated with? It is usually cheaper and simplest to work off that. Most furnaces are in the basement, which makes it easy to run the pipes or ducts.

I tapped into the duct work to heat our 32 X 48’ finished basement, which among other uses, it serves as my guitar room. It never drops below 66 degrees. I use a whole house humidifier to maintain 45-50% RH.

[fazool]

If you can't tap into your furnace heat, get an electric oil-filled heater. Those are considered the safest heaters.

[sayheyjeff]

The guitar room we have is a finished attic. We have it zoned for heat and ac. Running the heat knocks down the RH almost immediately. I keep the room at 65 when I am not in the room. I can raise it to a comfortable 68-70 in a very short time. Have to run a room humidifier until I no longer have a need for heat. We are only a short time from not having to heat this room or humidify it. All guitars stay in cases when not in use. Our basement is also zoned. We have radiators down there, but rarely have to use them as the furnace is there and keeps it reasonably warm. We could use the basement, but for just the 2 of us, it has become mostly storage and laundry. We do have a great old 60s vintage pinball machine down there in perfect working order, but we don’t use it as often as we used to. Best of luck in getting your situation straightened out.

Jeff

[Mandobart]

I also use a finished, heated, insulated, humidified basement for my musical lair.

During the remodel (in 2006) I put in electric floor heat (Thermosoft©) and laid tile in thinset over it. I keep the vents from the gas furnace ductwork closed as the floor heat does the job.

Ceramic space heaters work well and are a lower fire hazard than exposed electric heating elements.

[Wade Hampton]

My music room is on the same floor of the house as the room I sleep in. As a longtime Alaskan of Scottish and Viking ancestry, I like things cool, and the temperature rarely gets much higher than 62 degrees.

Which is deliberate.

Everything is fine at that temperature. It’s warm enough to play (for me, can’t speak for any of y’all,) and it suits me perfectly.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

[rokdog49]

I don’t know, the inexpensive ceramic heater I use works for me and I think it’s pretty safe. My guitar room is in the basement. I could have run duct work into the room when I had it built but chose not to. My reason: I wanted it sound proof.
With duct work, the noise would carry to every room in the house and defeat the purpose of having an isolated room.

[rmp]

I can give it to you first hand you're right to be leaning on the safe side. We had a house fire last march, you DO NOT want to go thru that..


How cold is it without heat? I would think anywhere around 60 should be ok.

I have a room in my studio room in our basement that has a hardwired heater installed,, (carpeted floors, tongue and groove barnboard wood for the walls it's 100% safe, insulation, good window etc..

I have it set so the room stays around 60 till I'm using it. Oh and.. My guitars (Electrics) are all cased and not in that room, but stored on shelf right next to it. The main part of the basement never gets below 56 even in the coldest days we have had here.

acoustics are up in the main part of the house in a closet that was built to hold about 6 axes..
(I have out grown that limit! )

[The Bard Rocks]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

My music room is on the same floor of the house as the room I sleep in. As a longtime Alaskan of Scottish and Viking ancestry, I like things cool, and the temperature rarely gets much higher than 62 degrees.

Which is deliberate.

Everything is fine at that temperature. It’s warm enough to play (for me, can’t speak for any of y’all,) and it suits me perfectly.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

Welcome back to the AGF world. I hope life is better now.

[musicman1951]

I have my woodworking shop in the basement and struggled with the same heater issues (worse, actually, because of the sawdust) and ended up going with an insulated vest and nothing. LL Bean, snaps are covered (just in case you consider that option).

My basement rarely goes much below 60 degrees, which would not bother a guitar. You might get away with just just using a small space heater while you're in the room.

[UncleJesse]

I routinely leave my guitars in my basement when the humidity is OK(around 45%). It's 62 degrees currently and I have 3 guitars out. One has been out for days getting a tonerite treatment.

[Italuke]

All good stuff yet no one has answered OP's question: how cold dare he let the room get? (I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts too as I have a somewhat similar issue.)

[rllink]

I have a bar in the basement where my guitars reside. The temp down there stays at 65 even on the coldest days outside. I have a space heater that I turn on when I'm down there to get the temp up a little, 70 maybe. It is going to have to get a lot lower than mid sixties to do anything.

When my daughter played violin in school the people we rented it from said not to leave out in freezing temps. Like in the bus, the car, or on the back porch.

[DanR]

My music room is in my basement. I leave my acoustic guitars in their cases to manage the lack of humidity. In the winter, the temperature dips down to about 59° even though I have an open overhead vent near my playing position. I dress warm when I'm playing so the temperature isn't a problem to me.