by Perry525 »
Sun Mar 16, 2008 7:27 pm
Marcus,
The problem is due to humidity/water vapour that you put into the house and your handling of the heating system.
Every person breaths out water vapour! You must have breathed onto a cold window as a child and seen your breath condense on the glass as a grey wet patch.
Our breath is total saturated with water vapour. Every person breaths out roughly 46 grams of water per 24 hours.
Every one of us creates about 2.5 litres of water vapour that enters the air in our homes every 24 hours.
That comes from breathing, sweating, washing, drying towels and things on radiators, cooking and things like opening the bathroom door and kitchen doors while the air is still damp in these rooms. Leaving the doors open with wet towels drying on the towel rail.
You will probably be surprised to learn that children produce more water vapour than adults, because they are so active.
On this point dogs also throw out a surprisingly large amount of water vapour, even when asleep.
Every time you turn the heating down or off, you unbalance the humidity/heat relationship.
For every temperature there is a specific amount of water vapour that is held in suspension.
Each time the temperature drops, its ability to hold water vapour diminishes - that water has to go somewhere, usually it will condense onto the nearest cold surface, a window. In your case its an already damp cold wall, behind a cupboard, where there is little or no air circulation.
Before you get noticeable condensation on your windows, it is already moving into your bed and bedding, making the bed feel cold when you get in, and your clothes feel cold in the morning.
To quickly solve your problem, you need to buy a de-humidifier and keep the de-humidifier on 24 hours a day remembering to empty the tank.
Then hold the same temperature 24 hours a day.
Walls become damp because rooms are warm, and the outside of the wall is cold, possibly freezing.The water vapour you and your family put into the home, rushes towards the nearest cold thing.Usually, this is a window the coldest spot in most rooms.
Installing double glazing alters the rooms balance, modern argon filled windows are warmer on the inside - the walls are now colder and the moisture/ water vapour looking for the coldest nearest spot moves inside the walls and condenses there.
Walls that have a waterproof render outside, tend to be wetter.
The condensed humidity inside the walls can freeze and over the course of a cold winter will move back and forth as ice inside the walls.
As is often the case, the coldest part of a wall is the render on the outside the ice tends to form there pushing the render outwards, leading to cracking and separation.
Because the rooms are always warmer than the outside air the condensation is trapped inside the walls.
This is when the de-humidifier comes into its own, utilizing water vapour other important feature.
Water vapour will also automatically move into a dry patch, so the de-humidifier will firstly attract the moisture in the air and the air drying out will lead to a drying of the walls, beds, furniture and clothes as the moisture therein moves out.
De-humidifiers are good. They reduce the moisture in the air and
in so doing lower your heating bill, dry air costs less to heat than damp air. Dry walls are a better insulation than damp walls they too save on heating costs.
You will save far more on your heating bill using a de-humidifier, than it will cost you to run it.
The alternative, you will have to wait for the summer to dry you out.
The sun shining on the outside of the walls, heats the walls forcing the damp to seek a colder place indoors, if the rooms are cold enough the water vapour will move back into the rooms.
Mold spores are in the air at all times looking for somewhere to settle and grow, their favorite is damp patches.
In normal conditions you only require a full air change in the house every two hours. If more fresh air is required then open a window.
Don't for heavens sake, make holes in your walls!
All this will do is make you cold. Yes, some water vapour will move outside, as its colder and drier most of the time, but not always, however, your expensive heat will also disappear outside and there is no point in letting that happen.
Perry
