We are experiencing one of the coldest winters on record and this means that building fabric is staying colder for longer periods than usual. Windows are often not being opened and therefore condensation is occurring in most of your homes. Here are a few tips to help you minimise the chance of condensation.
What is condensation?
When warm moist air produced by ordinary household activities such as cooking and bathing hits a cold surface, e.g. an outside wall or a window, condensation occurs. Unless the moist air can escape to the outside through an open window, air vent or extractor fan, it will always stay in your home moving around until it finds a cold spot where it can condense into condensation.
How can you control it?
Condensation can be controlled by making sure that the moisture in your home is balanced out by using ventilation. Getting this balance right can be tricky, depending on your type of heating, levels of insulation in your home, and the amount of ventilation you already have.
Heating
Try and avoid cold areas in the home. It is better to heat the whole home to a lower temperature rather than one room to a very high temperature. When you get condensation and mould forming, it is often not in the room where you are making the moisture, e.g. the kitchen, but in a room you don’t often use like the spare bedroom. This may be because this room is not usually heated. Try heating all the rooms regularly. Make sure you are using the heating system and controls efficiently as this will save you money and enable you to afford to heat more of your home.
Reducing moisture
Reducing moisture in the home will cut down the amount of condensation. How much moisture do you make in your home?
Drying clothes produces 10 pints of moisture.
Washing clothes produces 1 pint of moisture.
Using a paraffin or bottled gas heater* for 5 hours produces 3 pints of moisture.
Keep the kitchen and bathroom doors shut to stop moisture moving around your home.
Cover boiling pans with pan lids - this will save on your fuel bills as well as reducing moisture.
Avoid using portable gas and paraffin heaters. These fuels give off a lot of moisture when they burn so open a window in the room where the heater is if you have to use one. A window should be kept open for safety reasons too. They are also expensive to run - they cost about 7- 9p per hour to use, compared to a mains gas fire which costs 2-3p per hour.
Ventilation
Ventilating your home adequately, by opening windows a little, using extractor fans or vents provided, will allow moisture to escape to the outside.
Having a bath produces 2 pints of moisture.
Open the windows on one notch for half an hour after bathing to get rid of the moisture. Remember to shut them afterwards. Use an extractor fan in the bathroom if you have one when you have a bath or shower to let the moisture out.
Cooking by gas for 3 hours produces 3 pints of moisture.
Use the extractor fan or open the window on one notch in the kitchen when cooking to let the moisture out. If you have trickle vents above the windows, keep them open all the time. Don’t block up any air vents.
Posted at 11:27:00 on 15th February 2010