Attics, Televisions and Missouri Summers

April 23, 2009 2:46 PM

New place has a lovely attic, finished but no AC up there. We're planning on having the windows open with fans in them to keep the air moving and bearable. Would it be a bad idea to have a TV (plasma) up there in the humid southeastern Missouri summer?

I know most plasmas have operating humidity of up to 80 or 90%, and it can easily reach that on the worst of summer days here. Would the inside humidity be equal to that of outside with the windows open? Could some dehumidifying solution near the TV (in the middle of the room, far from the windows) prevent an untimely death of a big shiny toy?

I checked out some suggestions from this question, but I somehow doubt a few packs of silica gel would be enough to convince my partner his TV is safe.

posted by luftmensch to Technology (10 answers total)

Speaking as an hdtv-owning male, I wouldn't do it unless I could put a window air conditioner up there, the condensation risk is too high.
posted by Oktober at 2:49 PM on April 23, 2009

It's going to be insanely awful up there in the heat of the summer. Get an a/c, for shure, and have a backup plan to move the plasma back downstairs.

My attic in St. Louis got hot enough a few years ago to make the plastic, on a couple old computer devices I left up there, sag.
posted by notsnot at 2:58 PM on April 23, 2009

This page references a study of attic temperatures in Florida. On days when the outside high was 88-95 degrees, which is pretty typical of SE Missouri, the attic temperatures averaged 103 degrees just above ceiling insulation and 127 degrees near roof peak. With a turbine ventilator running the attic temperatures cooled by six degrees at most.
posted by plastic_animals at 3:31 PM on April 23, 2009

Response by poster: That's a nice study, p_a, and definitely going to impact our usage plans. Even if the TV won't die, we might if we hang around there too long! The space will probably still be used as an evening-night hang-out room, when hopefully the ventilation and lower outside temp in combination with refreshing beverages will make things tolerable.
posted by luftmensch at 3:38 PM on April 23, 2009

Response by poster: Well, wait. That seems to be in reference to small, unfinished, uninsulated attic spaces, whereas mine may be better described as an insulated, oddly-shaped room on the third floor.
posted by luftmensch at 3:40 PM on April 23, 2009

My bedroom is a finished, insulated attic with an a/c. During the summer, the attic regularly heats up to mid-to-high 80s by the afternoon, even though western NY summer temperatures are usually quite mild. If that's what my attic does, I shudder to think what an equivalent space would do in Missouri...
posted by thomas j wise at 4:06 PM on April 23, 2009

Attics, even furnished ones, get freakin' HOT during Missouri summers. My bedroom growing up was basically a finished attic space and sometimes the air conditioning could not keep up.
posted by zsazsa at 5:11 PM on April 23, 2009

Um, yeah... growing up in MO, I've been in lots of non-climate-controlled, finished attics that were dangerously hot during the summers. I don't mean uncomfortably hot, I mean literally dangerous to your health (heat stroke, exhaustion, prickly heat, heat rash, etc.) from about 10am to midnight.

Even some of the airconditioned ones were very uncomfortable--like, strip down to your boxers and wifebeater uncomfortable.
posted by Netzapper at 5:21 PM on April 23, 2009

Are you really going to want to hang out in this room and watch TV when it's sweltering?
posted by pluckysparrow at 8:41 PM on April 23, 2009

Response by poster: My main question was just whether the humidity (or heat i suppose) would be damaging to a television. I'm willing to wait and see on how comfortable it might be, but not to risk ruining the electronics.
posted by luftmensch at 11:01 PM on April 23, 2009