by Perry525 »
Tue Dec 31, 2013 8:04 pm
The condensation is due to your way of life!
You are producing a lot of water vapour, by cooking,
washing, breathing, sweating, probably drying things
indoors.
You can solve the problem by opening a window and
letting the water vapour escape into the cold, dry air
outside. Cheap almost no cost solution.
If you do this, some of your heat will go with it.
You can buy and use a dehumidifier, this will present
a cold surface in the home, which will collect the water.
And keep your heat in and drafts at bay.
You can fit and use extractor fans in the kitchen and
bathroom. Note: The fans will blow the water vapour
outside, along with your warm air. In so doing they will
pull cold air into your home, probably creating a number
of drafts. You can get round this by buying fans with a
built in heat exchanger, this will save perhaps 80% of
your heat.
You should avoid making holes in your roof.
When the wind blows over a roof, the roof acts like
an aircraft wind, it lifts the air, and creates an area
of low pressure, this low pressure tries to pull the roof
off your home. If there are holes, the wind pulls your
expensive heat from your home into the loft/attic and
out into the sky. Not very clever. And expensive.
Condensation forming on a plastic sheet does no harm.
If you really want to stop it, then you must stop the
water vapour from entering your roof. This means
sealing every hole and crack in the ceilings and
making the loft trapdoor water vapour proof. This is
very hard to do, as water vapour molecules are much
smaller than air and they can pass through wood,
for example.
After sealing the ceilings, you must paint them with
either laytex or gloss paint, both of these are water vapour
proof.
Once you have sealed access to the roof, the water
vapour will then condense on the nearest cold surface
usually the windows, this can be messy but, a few
towels will usually soak up the water. Try not to let
it soak into the walls.
