Unairconditioned Choir Rooms; ventilation tips?
  • Susdem
    Posts: 24
    Hi all,

    Our choir room is unairconditioned but on the side of the building that the sun beats in such that it effectively is like a green house, sometimes being warmer than outside, even in the winter. It's been particularly lately since the temperatures have been in the mid 90's. I'm looking into blackout curtains since almost the entire wall is windows and the blinds that are on the windows currently are broken. Any other tips? I have a box fan but obviously don't want to use that during rehearsals since it's noisy.

    Ironically, the hall just outside my choir room IS air conditioned so we usually leave the doors open during rehearsals. It doesn't help much, though, so we typically wind up sweating buckets through rehearsal during certain times of the year.

    Thanks in advance.
    Susan
  • TCJ
    Posts: 1,063
    You could put a couple of fans outside in the hall directing air into the room. Fans may be noisy, but if they are outside the sound should be mitigated a little at least.
  • SponsaChristi
    Posts: 803
    You could put a couple of fans outside in the hall directing air into the room. Fans may be noisy, but if they are outside the sound should be mitigated a little at least.


    I have two west facing windows that get direct sunlight during the hottest part of the day. I have found blackout curtains don’t really do much. My plan for this week’s heat is to cover my windows with that reflective foil insulated bubble wrap, if you want to try something more likely to be effective.

    Also, instead of a box fan, if anyone has a turbo fan (or multiple is even better), those are more effective for sucking cool air in and blowing the hot air out. They’re bit loud, but if you think of them like a drone and transpose accordingly, it does work.

    Do you have to have rehearsal in the choir room? Could you relocate to some place that has A/C or is cooler such as a basement?

    Thanked by 1Abbysmum
  • AbbysmumAbbysmum
    Posts: 203
    Do you have to have rehearsal in the choir room? Could you relocate to some place that has A/C or is cooler such as a basement?


    That's what we do. In the hot weather, once the catechism classes are done for the season, we migrate to another room with a piano in it. It's not ideal, but better than fainting.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,723
    Invest in a split unit. We might get one for the loft at some point.
    Thanked by 1davido
  • Susdem
    Posts: 24
    Invest in a split unit.


    What is a split unit?

    I do sometimes relocate to the church but it's not ideal. I have a whiteboard and other resources in the choir room that can't be moved that I often use.
  • davido
    Posts: 1,230
    Also called a mini split. Does heat and air conditioning, one part of the system is outside, the other is inside.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,723
    Exactly. The upshot is that you don’t need nearly the amount of work as with central A/C. We have central air in the church (it broke last summer; they fixed the motor that didn’t last nearly long enough, and hopefully we don’t have to rip up the art to fix ducts). The loft needs the mini split. We are worried for the singers but also the organ. Then there’s the question of the future choir room not connected to the A/C in that building. It has no heating or sufficient insulation at all, so winter is cold, snd and it is not comfortable in summer even if you are not in the sun at all, so you aren’t sweltering like in the west-facing office with glass floor-to-ceiling windows.

    Yeah, A/C feels like a luxury, but I’m in an area that either has no basements or they were built poorly and flood; our church has one, it can’t be used even for storage (the stairs are not fit for purpose for average parishioners to go up and down all the time). It floods too much. So we can’t do what some places do which is to use the basement in summer. My pastor was in STL for years. Summers were for low Masses, in the lower church if the church had one. I don’t believe that St Francis de Sales Oratory ever had one, but they have a basement, and after using a truck that did one modern form of window A/C (the window is either open —theirs tilt — or you put the tube through a hole made in the glass) and the temperature at the ICRSP ordinations in 2018 was about 80 degrees versus 95 or something much closer to the outside temps. It felt fine since the sun and humidity had less effect… they are installing a permanent system now, God bless them…
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