Condensation question

baza1976

HI,

I live in a new house, well 3 years old. My wife is constanly cribing about the condensation on the windows lately. 4 bed house just over 1600 square feet.

There are 5 of us in the house and then at weekends one of the nephews or neices might stay.
The attic is well insulated and the walls are too as far as I can tell (about the walls). Every room has vents.

My guess is that glass in the windows is cold, the air from breathing, cooking, and warm air from appilances hits the windows and turns into water.
The bed rooms in the morning are worse.

So my question is am I right about what is causing the condensation? What are your opinions as to what else might be causing it.

Thanks

aujopimur

You are right about the causes.
The cure is ventilation.

onq

You are right about the causes.
The cure is partly ventilation and partly heating.

Some people have been driving the rest of us down a single-agenda road for years.
The Part L revisions previous to this year required the use of zoned heating systems to save energy.
This meant, inter alia, that only rooms used during the day would be heated during the day.

This meant, in turn, that the bedrooms in most houses would tend to become very cold in winter.
It would take them that much longer to heat up in the evening.
They would then be then populated by warm bodies at night.
These rooms are kept sealed tight at night with vents shut.

Ergo, condensation in the morning.
Older draughtier properties didn't have this problem.
The infiltration at the window opes ensures condensation didn't occur.

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In relation to your house:

• open the windows and cross-ventilate every morning.
• ensure there is low level heating in all rooms on cold days.
• ensure all vents are maintained *on* in kitchens, etc. until condensation clears.

Let us know how you get on.

ONQ.

PS Are the windows painted metal or PVC or timber?

muffler

onq please stay on topic. We have been down this road before.