Can penetrative damp raise the humidity inside a house?
- Thread starter jamie423
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You should not be thinking of "raised humidity" (whatever that means) as a cause of condensation damp.
Just checking now, its 86% Rh in my house and there is no damp. Its between 50 and 80% RH normally in the winter too, and there is no damp either
Just checking now, its 86% Rh in my house and there is no damp. Its between 50 and 80% RH normally in the winter too, and there is no damp either
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Improving ventilation is on my to-do list as well. I originally asked the quesion as I noticed our guttering looks like it's in a bad state (clogged with debri, leaking parts) and was wondering if mabye that was raising the RH in our home to uncomfortable levels (its about 65-70% atm and it's been raining heavily a fair bit of the day).
We never air-dry laundry in our home, tumble dryer's vented outside. Since you asked, their's no mechanical ventilation anywhere in our home, all windows are double-glazed with no trickle vents, I try and keep all windows open at all times of the day when its not freezing cold. I was actually going to post a thread at some stage with a simple plan of our house (semi-detached) detailing dimensions and position of air bricks relative to dimensions. This could be a factor, our ones have very thin gaps for airflow and arn't distributed according to today's building standards as far as i know (one per 6 feet of the base of the structure). There should be one at the back of our house, but our conservatory is blocking it, and one of the two at the side it 4/5's blocked by our driveway. By any chance would you be able to comment on such a topic if i posted it in this thread?
@ woody: I don't think of RH as a sole cause of our condensation/damp problem, our supporting walls are quite cold so i'm sure that doesn't help matters. But it helps to control it right?
No. You don't have a benchmark to even start to control it
Your RH can be anywhere between 40 and 80% and could still not be excessive
I guess I was assuming that having whats considered a "healthy" RH (30-50%) would make it unlikely that any condensation effects would be noticed.
Can you give me an idea of what your approach would be to general condensation issues?
Can you give me an idea of what your approach would be to general condensation issues?
30% RH is way too low and 50% is still in the zone of dry eyes and sore throats.
The thing is with humidity, is that you should not be concentrating on it and trying to achieve some sort of "standard" level in the hope that it prevents any condensation issue you may have. Condensation control depends on the four factors
You could have say 70%RH at 22°C and 60%RH at 20°C and have no problems or still have problems. Or there could be slight variations in RH and temp at the room corners and this will cause air to condense there.
Extract steam at source, use windows or vents to move air around, and use heating at even temperatures. Remove cold surfaces with insulation where possible
The most important thing is not to do any of these in on/off open/close patterns, but to provide a constant and even balance and use.
The thing is with humidity, is that you should not be concentrating on it and trying to achieve some sort of "standard" level in the hope that it prevents any condensation issue you may have. Condensation control depends on the four factors
You could have say 70%RH at 22°C and 60%RH at 20°C and have no problems or still have problems. Or there could be slight variations in RH and temp at the room corners and this will cause air to condense there.
Extract steam at source, use windows or vents to move air around, and use heating at even temperatures. Remove cold surfaces with insulation where possible
The most important thing is not to do any of these in on/off open/close patterns, but to provide a constant and even balance and use.
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