Jump to content

97 Degrees F


Recommended Posts

The temperatures here will reach 97 degrees for the next 3 days. 

 

How does high temperatures affect your studio and work practices?

 

I monitor the kiln room and try to keep temperatures lower than 100 degrees.  When temperatures are this high I only run kilns at night.  The studio is in a well insulated house and we run 2 window unit air conditioners and fans and have no problem.    My family has used those evaporation coolers in work areas and they work well. (those swamp coolers .. NOT those free standing air conditioners .. those are useless) I've thought about one for the kiln work but am suspect of the amount of humidity on my Advancers.

 

How does high temperatures affect your studio and work practices?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I personally always fire my kiln at night. Usually when I am sleeping. But I have electric and I trust my setup and I have smoke alarms connected to my phone so it would alert me at any CO2 or smoke warnings. I have a big fire extinguisher right beside my garage door where my kiln is. All my wiring was done professionally and to the specs L&L put in their manual. 

 

The main thing I think is to have air circulating in your kiln room, so that the radiant heat from the kiln is vented. So just having a vent for the bad air isn't enough, you need fresh air coming in and hot air going out. Otherwise I would think the room would get very very hot. For me I just crack the garage door 5 inches and its plenty of air coming in.

 

As far as the studio affecting my work. I find my work dries a lot faster in the summer, which I prefer anyways. It is nice in the winter when its chilly in there and I turn on my little space heater and work all day. But I much prefer to be hot than cold. I love being sweaty and hot, cold hurts my bones.

 

One thing I do have to do in the summer is wrap my mugs about 30 minutes after I put handles on them for a day, then remove the bag. If I don't the handle cracks around the attachment. One day I will build a shelve with clear plastic around it so I dont have to do this, but for now it works and is cheap. I don't cover anything else besides mugs. Bowls I let dry till rim is stiff, usually a few hours, then I flip them and let dry till leather hard, then trim. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest JBaymore

Summer heat here in NH usually comes right along with high humidity... so no need to wrap stuff in any special way.

 

High heat and humidity here .... slows ME down.  The studio is fine.

 

My main kilns (gas and wood fire) are in sheds away from the main studio ....so no heat issues.  My electric is small ..... and only used for overglaze enamels and lusters.  Usually try to do that stuff in the winter..... and the heat loss into the room helps then ;) .

 

best,

 

...............john

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My shop is cool in summer with heater pilot turned off. Its insulated and even when it gets in the nineties(very rare)its cool in shop as long as I leave it closed up. I want work to dry so in summer I take most of it outside on racks under a roof to dry well. My kilns are all outside so if I'm firing it can be 100 under the shed roof 24x 32 but the shop is cool for working.In the winter its a different story.

Mark

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Humidity in the Mid-South (TN) is the comfort killer...so I keep a fan going much of the time in the studio. When firing, usually in the wee-hours of the morning, I just find something else to do around the house (coffee drinking is a good option), turn on the exhaust fan, and leave a small space open on the overhead door.  Otherwise, working when the temps are below 90F isn't such a big deal..the fan is enough to keep me from melting into the slop bucket :)

-Paul

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Up here in Georgia the humidity gets pretty awful, so awful I have had doors swell to the point they don't shut properly. To combat this I run dehumidifiers in the studio and the kiln side of the garage. Last summer I gave in and bought a window unit air conditioner for the studio, mostly because my Pugs can't handle the heat and humidity so if I want to go down and work I need an environment they can handle as well. If it's just me then I pretty much just run the ceiling fan and it keeps me cool enough.

 

Drying work is always a challenge since our valley is so humid. If it rains for days on end the dehumidifier can't keep up and everything takes forever to dry. I tend to dry stuff very slowly anyway as have found with boxes and mugs especially it doesn't pay to dry them quickly. I always wrap them for a day then slowly uncover them until they get to the point I place them on wire shelves for the final drying.

 

I find I do more wheel work in the summer as in the winter its a bit cold even with a the wall heater running to spend much time in with wet hands. I like summer for cleaning up bone dry and reclaiming clay since I use water to to that and it can be a bit messy so do that on my outside porch.

 

I have found my kiln fires differently in heat as opposed to cold. The firing cycle is a bit shorter since I start out at a higher temp but then the final cool down takes longer because the temps are higher. I have an open upper door for air to come in and a vent to send the stinky air out. I like to fire my kilns at night hot or cold, in hot it keeps the room cooler in cold it warms the room up a bit plus electricity is a tad cheaper at night.

 

T

Link to comment
Share on other sites

PA right now is really humid. Seems like every storm that misses California, finally makes its way to PA. We are not in a drought though. Things take forever to dry and right now I am waiting on a bisque load to dry up enough to fire. May have to candle overnight. The heat really does not slow me down so much as the drying of the pots. I have run a fan on larger pieces with the wheel going so that I can finish the throwing and  shaping. Temps are not hot right now, mainly in the 80's, but humidity is running 90's.

 

All of this effects my kayaking more than anything else. 5 days out of the week there are threats of thunderstorms.  The lake I go to is only 30 minutes away, but on top of a mountain(Eastern). The weather changes there so quickly, that I prefer not to get on the lake if storms are in the area.

 

 

best,

Pres

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love throwing in the summer! I can throw several pieces in the morning and by mid afternoon, they're ready to trim. We live in the high desert country of eastern Washington state. By this coming Saturday, our predicted high temperatures will be in the 100-103 range with relative humidity at about 15%. Of course, there are some pieces I need to keep covered due to the lack of moisture in the air. But that's a small inconvenience to pay for such quick turn around times on everything else.

 

Winters around here are a completely different story. It can take DAYS to get anything to dry enough to trim. And it doesn't help that the primary heat source in the studio is a ventless propane heater. It really puts a lot of moisture in the air. <_< Much of the time, I try to do a lot of throwing just prior to having a bisque load ready to fire. Since the kiln is inside the studio, it dries things out just right if the outside temperatures are in the low 30's to upper 20's. Usually, by the next day after firing, all of the pieces that I threw beforehand are ready to trim.

 

All in all, I'd have to say I like throwing in the summer much more than in the winter! ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest JBaymore

First the "setup" for this story..............

 

One year a good while ago I was invited to be involved in a major event in Japan that had 85 invited ceramic artists from around the world exhibiting and demonstrating.  They set up a domed sports stadium as the venue, and the central field area was transformed into a huge "studio" layout with wheels, work tables, clay machinery, huge supplies of three different clay bodies, and so on  A separate section was set up with walls and dividers as an exhibition area.  There were enclosed areas for lecture/slide shows.  This was a situation to which the Japanese public were invited to come watch us all work, see the exhibition, present lectures, and so on.... and something like 65,000 people did (yeah.... only in Japan!).

 

The issue that relates a bit to this thread is that it was an ENCLOSED domed sports stadium.  And it was the rainy season in Japan.  And it was in the 95 F+ range for temps.  No AC in the building.  Rained the entire time we were working there (2 weeks) except the last day (when they finally could open the dome).  There were TONS and tons of ceramic objects "drying" in that enclosed space.  There were LOTS of hot sweating people in that enclosed space. 

 

I had my pile of working clay sitting in a large open heap on the floor next to my work table.  It was kept simply in a pile on the floor........ no plastic or anything else covering it, 24/7.  It was as wet on the last day of the event as on the first day.  Maybe wetter.  All of the work only started to actually dry on that last day once the dome opened.

 

Oh... and all of us working there.... were as wet as the work.  Your clothes were constantly sodden with sweat....... all day.

 

Working in Japan in the summer... the humidity can be a real processing "slow down" aspect.

 

best,

 

................john

Link to comment
Share on other sites

:rolleyes: and some of you wonder why i use my household oven to dry some pots.............

....and cone pads. Mine has a pilot light that makes the perfect warmth, just prop the door open with a wooden spoon handle (@1/2") to let out the moisture.

 

John, that vision of steamy potter heaven/hell will stay with me forever!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Although the heat and humidity here in Virginia can get pretty bad, it is nothing compared to the coastal Texas town I grew up in. I have my kiln and studio in an old, damp basement. The breeze from around the Windows was so bad I covered them with insulation this past winter. Now things are drying very slowly. The temp was only 85 in the studio this evening but I was soaked with sweat from the humidity.

 

When my kiln was in a garage, I kept two doors cracked for air flow. I also used a fan blowing on the control box in warm weather. The manufacturers instructions stated the control box could over heat.

 

Grape, are you in the Northern part of the state? I don't believe swamp coolers work in humid climates. I hate the summers. The humidity cause terrible joint pain for me. Only when the air is really dry do I feel well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, we have had a week of mostly cool, with rain. One day of sun on Wednesday. Yesterday was 60's, today 70's, all weekend in the 60's! Same weather pattern we had last year. Arctic air from north drops in and leaves us cold, south western storms come across and leave threats of thunderstorms, Southern air up the coast dumps more rain. This will probably go on till August, then we will be dry. Hope the cycle breaks earlier, but don't want to complain too much, no one needs a drought.

 

best,

Pres

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.