how to reduce condensation
- Thread starter wossie6
- Start date
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I'd concur with most of the responses but it might be worth just reminding ourselves what the whole thing is down to.
Air contains water vapour as a matter of course. The warmer the air, the more water vapour it will hold but also the more water vapour in the air the higher the dew point. Cool any air mass to its dewpoint or below and... well, dew!
Absolute humidity is a measure of the actual moisture content. Relative humidity is the amount of water vapour in the air expressed as a percentage of the amount it could hold at any particular temperature. So if you cool air of high relative humidity you get condensation, but if you heat up the same air you reduce its relative humidity.
But if only it were that simple. Most building materials are permeable to air and that includes the water vapour in the air. So even if you heat up your house so much that nothing condenses on internal surfaces, somewhere between the warm inside and the cold outside you will still get condensation - only this time it does its evil deeds unseen; fungal growth, plaster degradation etc.
But I do have a solution. It's spring - open the windows, wrap up the kids & turn off the heating. (You don't need it until October now anyway!
)
And don't come whining to me when you get a house full of fog!
Air contains water vapour as a matter of course. The warmer the air, the more water vapour it will hold but also the more water vapour in the air the higher the dew point. Cool any air mass to its dewpoint or below and... well, dew!
Absolute humidity is a measure of the actual moisture content. Relative humidity is the amount of water vapour in the air expressed as a percentage of the amount it could hold at any particular temperature. So if you cool air of high relative humidity you get condensation, but if you heat up the same air you reduce its relative humidity.
But if only it were that simple. Most building materials are permeable to air and that includes the water vapour in the air. So even if you heat up your house so much that nothing condenses on internal surfaces, somewhere between the warm inside and the cold outside you will still get condensation - only this time it does its evil deeds unseen; fungal growth, plaster degradation etc.
But I do have a solution. It's spring - open the windows, wrap up the kids & turn off the heating. (You don't need it until October now anyway!
)And don't come whining to me when you get a house full of fog!
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What summerwossie6 said:Can anyone explain how the hell im getting condesation on the windows now,in the b****y summer.Bedroom window is still bad.
I would say poor ventilation and no air flow movement from room to room.
wossie6 said:Can anyone explain how the hell im getting condesation on the windows now,in the b****y summer.Bedroom window is still bad.
See my last post on the subject; your bedroom window is at or below the dewpoint temperature of the air, presumably because the air is relatively moist. Open the bleeding windows!!
The bleeding windows do get opened.Thinking about getting tripple glazed for the one room,as i work nights and sllep in the day.Have you ever tried to sleep in the daytime and whats more, tried sleeping in the day time on a BUSY VERY BUSY MAIN ROAD with a window wide open.
wossie6 said:The bleeding windows do get opened.Thinking about getting tripple glazed for the one room,as i work nights and sllep in the day.Have you ever tried to sleep in the daytime and whats more, tried sleeping in the day time on a BUSY VERY BUSY MAIN ROAD with a window wide open.
Luxury! You wanna try sleeping in a messdeck onboard one of her Majesty's sleek grey messengers of death with thirty other geezers, all on different watch patterns, lights coming on and off, locker doors banging open and shut and the constant noise of propulsion and ventilation... Oh yeah and your entire world moves all the time! Aye, them were't'days!
Do you have a house full of kids and pets? Is the washing machine or dryer on a hell of a lot? Do you live above a Chinese laundry?... or a swamp? Somehow the air in your house is wringing wet. You may want to consider investing in a de-humidifier.
Some of this has been said by others above - I apologise if I duplicate anything.
The air we breathe holds an amount of water vapour. The amount of vapour it holds depends on the temperature. At lower temperatures the air can hold less, at warmer temeratures it can hold more.
So, if you take warm air (which holds a lot of vapour) and cool it (say on the surface of a window) then, as the temperature of the air drops, and its ability to hold vapour reduces, water will condense from the air. This can happen in the air - i.e. fog, clouds - but most often happens on cold surfaces - i.e. frost on the ground and condensation on walls and windows.
You can see from this that you have one of two problems: You either have too much water vapour in the air, or the surface temperature of your windows is too low!
I would doubt that the problem is with the windows unless they are particularly poor quality - only you will know that. The seals might have failed but this would be obvious because the first place condensation would form is within the gap.
So, you have too much vapour in the air. I do know people who swear by dehumidifiers but I personally don't favour them. They will only work effectively if you seal the room up and if you calculate what would be needed to dry out the average house it comes up with a unit that resembles a Harrier Jump Jet. They might be useful to initially dry the house out a but I don't think they are really very practical in the long term.
You must look at all sources of water - babies, people, washing, plants, leaking pipes, waterproofers on the outside of your walls (oh yes, people who 'waterproof' their walls only create longer term problems - like condensation. Haven't 'waterproofed' your walls have you?)
The worse source by a mile are non-vented tumble dryers. Unvented tumble dryers will very nicely take all the water from your clothes and pump it straight into the house.
You must then ventilate your house. In a case like this you might look at positive pressurisation. This is a system where you install a fan in the ceiling between your landing and the loft. The fan turns quite slowly and is very quiet but positively pressurises the house. You fit them and forget them - constant running. Some people don't like them but I have seen them kill condensation dead.
Remedy: (in order of priority)
1) Reduce sources water vapour.
2) Ventilate.
The air we breathe holds an amount of water vapour. The amount of vapour it holds depends on the temperature. At lower temperatures the air can hold less, at warmer temeratures it can hold more.
So, if you take warm air (which holds a lot of vapour) and cool it (say on the surface of a window) then, as the temperature of the air drops, and its ability to hold vapour reduces, water will condense from the air. This can happen in the air - i.e. fog, clouds - but most often happens on cold surfaces - i.e. frost on the ground and condensation on walls and windows.
You can see from this that you have one of two problems: You either have too much water vapour in the air, or the surface temperature of your windows is too low!
I would doubt that the problem is with the windows unless they are particularly poor quality - only you will know that. The seals might have failed but this would be obvious because the first place condensation would form is within the gap.
So, you have too much vapour in the air. I do know people who swear by dehumidifiers but I personally don't favour them. They will only work effectively if you seal the room up and if you calculate what would be needed to dry out the average house it comes up with a unit that resembles a Harrier Jump Jet. They might be useful to initially dry the house out a but I don't think they are really very practical in the long term.
You must look at all sources of water - babies, people, washing, plants, leaking pipes, waterproofers on the outside of your walls (oh yes, people who 'waterproof' their walls only create longer term problems - like condensation. Haven't 'waterproofed' your walls have you?)
The worse source by a mile are non-vented tumble dryers. Unvented tumble dryers will very nicely take all the water from your clothes and pump it straight into the house.
You must then ventilate your house. In a case like this you might look at positive pressurisation. This is a system where you install a fan in the ceiling between your landing and the loft. The fan turns quite slowly and is very quiet but positively pressurises the house. You fit them and forget them - constant running. Some people don't like them but I have seen them kill condensation dead.
Remedy: (in order of priority)
1) Reduce sources water vapour.
2) Ventilate.
Wossie
Just a thought, have you checked under the floor boards to see if you have a leeky pipe. It happened to a friend of mine. When he finally found it, it became apparent that it had probably been trickling away for years.
For as long as he had lived there, the house always felt cold and clammy. A few months after the repair, it felt like a new home.
Just a thought, have you checked under the floor boards to see if you have a leeky pipe. It happened to a friend of mine. When he finally found it, it became apparent that it had probably been trickling away for years.
For as long as he had lived there, the house always felt cold and clammy. A few months after the repair, it felt like a new home.
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