Hi fellow Nauts! I’ve had some life changes (le bebe on the way) and will be looking to move my studio to a new room as mine is currently the ideal place for the nursery. The best option I have is the attic. It has tons of room, cool acoustics and it’s easier for me to feel like I’m in a new space as opposed to just down the hall. My issue though is that while the attic is mostly finished it’s not temperature regulated and here in my neck of the woods it can get both freezing and sweltering hot in the summer. As the baby will take most of my time, I’m not quite keen on running the AC or heat up there constantly, but am concerned what effect it might have on my gear overall if I don’t as I haven’t really had them in such unregulated conditions.
In my old apartment I was a sort of a “only turn on the AC when necessary” guy, but the house was always pretty temperate for the winter. So I have experience with heat and humidity(Though I was always a bit nervous about it tbh), but not sure what very cold temperature would do either.
Does any one have attic setup experience already and have any advice? Similarly does any one foresee any issues in general or am I overthinking it? It can get humid where I am as well. In my old apartment I lived upstairs and had no central air (still don’t) so I imagine it might not be so different from that experience.
I think you’ll probably be fine. I’m envious of your position actually! When my kid was born she took my studio and for a while I worked in the cubby under the stairs, followed by the conservatory (basically a greenhouse), and now I’m set up in the open plan living room/kitchen!
That greenhouse was violently cold in the winter and brutally hot in the summer, and I had it for a couple of years. No gear was harmed, I am happy to report, so I think you’ll be OK. It’s probably worth doing what you can to seal/insulate, with the bonus being that you could use insulation with good acoustic properties!
Godspeed and congratulations on your new endeavour that I can assure you is even more expensive than synths… Unless you’re really into modular, in which case it might be a close call.
Also watch a video called “the happiest baby on the block” - it’ll make the first three months significantly easier, I promise. Its all about how to be the ultimate pro baby swaddler and let everyone get some rest amidst the primal chaos.
Interesting subject ! Why ? Because i’ve just bought a 200 years old house a month ago with a
mansard roof and i need to rebuild the roof since ventilation is non existent and there is water infiltration . Anyway i want to build my studio in the attic so i did some research.
Where do you live ? Where i live the winter is very cold and summer is hot (Canada) so you have to be very careful with what you do with your attic (ventilation and isolation) . The problem is condensation when its cold and it can be very hot during the summer.
So where do you live, is the attic finished ? what kind of roof ? Do you have enough ventilation ? How is the insulation ?
I’m under a roof built in 1895 with no insulation to speak of. I ve had the occasional gear breaking but nothing I’m suspecting the climate to have done. Though it would be very hard to tell whether it was related.
Moved my studio around our 1850s house depending on what room I was renovating for 7 years. The room its been in for the last 2 years is very firewoodhungry to heat up so its been arctic in there for periods. The only problem i have noticed is that the potentiometers on the octatrack starts acting weird and glitchy when cold.
But I understand that heating a attic during winter is risky if the ventilation/insulation isnt correct and it can be quite complex. Dont know the english terminology that good but its easy to miscalculate and get the dewpoint inside the insulation for example. Get a pro if you arent one yourself.
Where abouts do you live? I’m guessing US, based on the terminology - but it’s a big place! I’d want to qualify what hot and cold means to you.
I live in the UK and I wouldn’t even consider using my loft for anything more than storage without first insulating it properly. It’ll be sub 0 temperatures up there right now and gets to 40c in the summer which exceeds the recommended ambient temperature of Elektron gear and I’m sure others.
My oldest kid is now 18 so i can tell from 17 years of experience that none of my equipment seem to bother fluctuations in temperature or humidity.
I live in a pre world war II house with poor isolation. Windows on the south so it get’s bloody hot during summers. Even in winter the temperature drops to 12 degrees Celcius in on a night below zero and on a bright day goes back to 22 degrees as soon as the sun does his thing. Very fluctuating. During summers it get’s hotter then 38 degrees with outside temperatures of 27.
The only thing that has hard time to adapt is my body. Too hot to make music or too cold for my fingers. My electric guitar stays quite well tuned over the year. My precious acoustic stays in a Triq case and so far no problems with that either. Only analog oscillators need re calibration twice a year to stay in tune during seasons. Analog heat and Prophet get very hot during summers but they keep working without problems. Be sure to keep your pc dust free and able to let air flow freely around it otherwise the increase of fan speed can be annoying. I’ll upgraded pc with Noctua fans and this is a huge advantage.
My only advice is not to let any clothes drying in the same area because that will increase dust and humidity to levels i don’t want to putt my equipment too the test.
I would not recommend to use such a place professionally but as a hobby.
My next purchase will be solar panels and inverter type airco so i can control the temperature energy neutral.
I thought my house was old and it was likely built in the 40s. I live in the New Jersey so not quite as frigid as Canada though I’d assume we get more hot temperatures in the summer. The attic is finished but I wouldn’t say it’s well ventilated. Construction is a bit shoddy admittedly. The previous occupants looked to have used at as a bedroom for a teen daughter so it was at least livable from that standpoint. There’s a base board heater and they would install an AC in the window. The condensation is my biggest concern. What did you find when researching the topic?
I’m in OR, and there’s an organization here called the Energy Trust of Oregon that has lots of resources for people trying to evaluate and improve the efficiency of their homes. There might be something similar in NJ that includes some DIY suggestions. MIght be worth having a contractor with a specialty in this area come out and check things for you. With condensation, sometimes it’s enough just to make sure the air is moving around in the space, so if it isn’t a huge attic, having some fans running up there might keep things at a good level of humidity. At our place we have attic storage above our garage and were starting to get mold growing on the plywood roof panels. Opening up the roof vent a bit to improve circulation seems to have eliminated that problem, even though it’s a quite damp climate out here.
+1 for Happiest Baby on the Block, by the way. Learn to swaddle – it was a miracle for my kid!
having been in a similar space in a similar climate, with zero heat or AC running to it, I chose not to leave my gear in there until we added an HVAC unit. the extremes are just too much for me to feel comfortable leaving expensive gear exposed to them.
it sounds like the space is separate from the main house’s HVAC, since you mentioned baseboard heating and window AC. if this is the case I would just use those and set them at a more moderate temp when you’re not going to be in there. maybe like 50 degrees in the winter, and 80 in the summer. then change it as needed when you’ll be in there. or at least try that for a while to see what it does to your electric bill. likely it’ll add a bit but not be insane. and cheaper than ruining gear.
Yes I’d say this is definitely an option and less costly than keeping the AC on for humid summers. I had one for my smaller studio in my last apartment.
. Anyway i want to build my studio in the attic so i did some research.
I’d want to qualify what hot and cold means to you.
