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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 magfan

magfan
1,583 posts
 
Condensation would seem to be the #1 enemy. People exhale lots of moisture. Bring 4 or 5 people into a cold room and than turn on the heat? Pre-heat is recommended as is some for of humidity control, especially in the summer.

As for glass stress fractures. Sure, heating too rapidly could be a problem.

But my question is this. How hot does the tube envelop get? I suspect all tubes in class 'a' stuff stay hot all the time when on. But for all other gear, what is the temp diff between a 60f room or a 75f room and operating temp? Any scratches in the envelop will drastically shorten tube life. I also suspect handling with oily or contaminated hands will also shorten tube life.

As for insulation, go with Tpreaves and Elwood on this. Double glazed or better windows, good seals around the doors and R-30 in the overhead.

You should also be thinking about summer. Too hot is potentially as bad or worse than too cold. How hot do summers get?
magfan
1,583 posts
 
Please continue to watch out for condensation.
This is the #1 enemy of fine electronics under your conditions. People exhale lots of moisture and it will 'migrate' to cold places.

If you are where the weather is bad/major snow, you guys are getting creamed.
magfan
1,583 posts
 
Sorry, I don't know the limits, but feel strongly that humidity and low, condensing temps are a bad mix with fine electronics.

I grew up in the midwest and winter was static electricity season. I think we also had a humidifier since there was little natural humidity in cold weather. It was also a pretty large, 3000ft/sq house of 2 floors. My ma used to keep a kettle on the stove and would turn it on periodically.

Did you wrap your new construction with Tyvek?
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