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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
jea48
4,526 posts
 
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
yioryos's avatar
yioryos
723 posts
 
Lissnr
It sounds like you did put a lot of effort and hard labor in your garage.I understand what hard work is because I finished all the interior of my three floor home by myself.
Judging by your description and if my understanding is correct,I would of done things a litle different ,for example I could add a 2x6 on the side of every existing stud (sister studs)to allow R21 insulation installation,then 6mil poly for vapor barrier,plus 5/8 fire rated gypsum board or double it up.A more expensive alternative would be spray foam on all cavities by a company that specializes in that.
Regards
George
lissnr OP
365 posts
 
Thanks again guys, The towel idea is interesting...I'll think about it but honestly...unless I'm away for more than a day (not likely upcoming) I'll be out there every day/night cranking the heater back up from never less (hopefully) than 50, up to 60+, all the time. Even with a fairly cold spell a few days ago, I have yet to see it go below 50. Trust me, I WILL be monitoring it always. My main question was really just a better ballpark of how cold could it get before I should really be concerned (assuming I WASN't watching it).
Yioryos: Thanks for the kind words... the 2"x6" were the first thing that crossed my mind and an excellent idea but I immediately decided against it due to the reduced width the room would have... I was convinced that my speakers (and most speakers in general) prefer a reasonably wide room, as much as, if not more than length and I just felt that extra 4+" was something I didn't want to sacrifice. Right choice or wrong...who can say... but I'm pretty pleased so far with the results.
Thanks again everyone.
jea48
4,526 posts
 
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
lissnr OP
365 posts
 
Hello Jea48: Yes,you understand correctly...the vaulted ceiling is the bottom of the 2"x4" roof rafters and there were 2"x4"x approx 13' or so ties (I call them cross beams) tieing the outside long walls along the eves to each other... just before I began the project I had a good friend of mine who is a GC come in and assess the structure. He declared it quite sound except that he noticed a slight bowing along the centerline of the roof ( you really had to look hard to notice it)... so what we did was take a heavy duty floor jack and a big 4"x4" x 8'ish and at the midpoint we gently raised it back up to level while a few of his workers took 3 big 2"x6"s and installed them in place of the old ones. They were nailed and then through-bolted (w/ 5/8" bolts) to really keep it all well locked in nice and tight again. I removed 4 of the original 5 which were redundant/not doing much/if anything and the roof is good and secure again. With roofers all over it after that it was completely fine and I'm sure any snow accumulation shouldn't be a problem. Obviously to maintain ceiling height I simply painted these exposed beams the same ceiling color ("Chalk white" from Ben Moore) and they look pretty great.
I'll be updating my system pics soon, and show the new room... the one there on my "system link" now is my last room(in an apt.). I appreciate your obvious insights into the "big picture" of all the fine details . Thanks again.
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