Cold room, Bad for equipment?


I'm a very fortunate guy in as much as I've recently finished transforming a gutted detached garage into my dedicated listening room.After 1.5 years and hundreds of personal man- hours I am putting the finishing acoustic panel touches and tweaks and finally enjoying the music. It is extremely well insulated with R-13 insulation between the studs and a layer of both 5/8" drywall over 1/2" quiet rock all around, except for the ceiling which is only 1 layer of 5/8" and the R-13. Floor is carpet over laminate over Dri-core, so that's not a problem either but I live in NY and due to the added complexity of an HVAC system, I have not added any heat to the room.With winter temps dropping to less than freezing I'm wondering what is considered a minimum temp I should try to be maintaining through the use of portable space heaters in order not to be harmful to my equipment. This includes a mix of some units in stand-by mode (my tubed pre-amp with low voltages keeping them warm) as well as CD transport, Dac, and self-powered sub woofer which are always left on. Amps are left off of course, both a big solid state Classe monster as well as a tube amp.My in-room thermometer has read as low as 50 F tonight and the space heater brought it up to 60... Obviously the amps will warm things up a bit while playing but the big question is how low can I let that temp go without doing any possible harm to anything???Note there is 1 30"x60" window with blinds and a 3/8" piece of sheetrock pressed up against it (from the inside), effectively sealing it closed. The one door is a standard"outside" door with a separate glass storm door outside of it. The original 'car' garage door has been sealed and a new internal framed wall (sheetrocked as the others) is in its place. Thanks in advance.
lissnr

Showing 3 responses by jea48

.....I've recently finished transforming a gutted detached garage into my dedicated listening room.

It is extremely well insulated with R-13 insulation between the studs and a layer of both 5/8" drywall over 1/2" quiet rock all around, except for the ceiling which is only 1 layer of 5/8" and the R-13.
Lissnr
The space above the ceiling should have at least an R-30 insulation rating, R-40 being better yet. Most of your heat in the room is going up through the roof.
Jim
When not in use, laying some thick bath towles over the tube gear should help avoid condensation issues. 20-30 min after listening just lay them over the gear.
12-14-09: Blindjim
Not sure that would be a good idea. It may actually do more harm than good. I would think it would be best to let the hot then warming air, as the equipment cools down, to rise and dissipate in the cooler air of the room.

Food for thought.... late 1950s and earlier car radios used tubes.
Jim
Lissnr,

If I understand correctly the ceiling in the room is the bottom of the 2x4 roof rafters? Vaulted ceiling, is that correct?

Did you install some type of ties from outside wall to outside wall along the eve side of the two long walls at least every 4ft so a heavy snow on the roof will not push the side walls out.

Or maybe did you install a structural ridge support beam down the center of the peak of the roof rafters to support the roof? The beam supported by support columns at each gable end?
Jim