Disklavier

Hi All,

I've looked through the archives and have read some of the
discussions, but most humidity-related articles were about forced-air
heating systems.  So here's my story:

I bought a DC3A back in January.  I did a little reading and had a
whole-house humidifier installed in my forced-air heating system. 
During the winter, I had no problem keeping the relative humidity
between 35% and 45%.

During the summer, the air conditioner kept the house at a healthy
humidity level (40% to 50%.)

Now since Autumn is arriving, I'm at a dilemma.  The outside
temperature has been as low at 55 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit and it's
still pretty humid (the last couple of days the humidity has been
hovering around 80%-90%).

If I wanted to have the air conditioner help keep the humidity down,
I'd have to set the thermostat between 65 and 70 degrees otherwise the
air conditioner wouldn't cycle on at all.  I tried this briefly and
the house gets kind of stuffy pretty quickly because the air
conditioner comes on so infrequently.

I've read about humidity control systems for the piano, but I'm not
real thrilled about having to deal with some kind of cover for my
piano.  I play it 2-3 times a day and having to fool with a cover
would be a PITA.  This is not even considering the aesthetics of
covering the piano.

I grew up in a house with no air conditioning (so we were totally at
the whim of Mother Nature regarding humidity) and a console piano.  We
had the piano tuned twice a year and I don't remember any significant
problems other than things I could attribute to normal wear and tear.

I don't mind having my piano tuned more frequently (heck I would have
it tuned every month if I thought I could stop worrying about the
humidity all the time.)

Am I really damaging my piano by exposing it to this kind of humidity?
 How quickly would things go down hill?  We had the piano I played
when I was growing up for 12 years and other that having it tuned and
replacing the felts after about 10 years the humidity didn't seem to
bother it all that much.

Thanks,
Bob