If I can't heat my house, how do I stop damp?

[babysoupdragon2]

We live in a 1930s semi.

Every winter we have huge issues with condensation on the windows, I have to do a daily window vac otherwise it spreads to the walls. This is despite ventilating the rooms well. No other damp causes.

The only thing we've found to help is to not let the temperature drop below about 15 overnight. But there's no way we will be able to pay for this this year.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Just to add, we don't dry washing inside unless we really have to. Windows are about 5 years old.

Lurking as I’m in the same boat. The only thing I can think of is to increase ventilation, so have the windows open more......but then it will be colder and I’ll need the heating on. 🤷‍♀️

Oh and we have a dehumidifier running 24/7

Do you keep the windows open? We open ours all year round. Have you get decent loft insulation- as deep as possible? I would also keep bedroom doors open. Keep bathroom doors shut but open windows wide. Dry washing outside where ever possible.

When I was small we had a single crappy electric fire as our only heating. Mum used to put rags along the window sill and wrong them out in the morning.

My house is exactly the same,we had to buy a dehumidifier.

Has it been like that since you got the new windows? Or was it like it before?

Could you put a towel up against the windows every night to absorb it?

I think this may well end up being my situation this winter. Also in a 1930s semi, last winter wasn't bad but we kept it to 16 at night and 17 in the day. We won't be doing that this year.

Since these few slightly colder and damper days after the heatwave, our house has already got to 65-70% humidity all day long, which isn't great. I'm assuming it will be worse in winter.

We have all our windows open constantly already. We're going to buy a dehumidifier and hope for the best.

I read about someone using the silica gel packs from covid tests, and putting them along the window sill. Not sure if that helped!

Dehumidifier

This is going to be a big issue for people and damp houses are much less healthy, so if it was me I would try to make this the last thing I cut back on, as boring as it seems to prioritise paying energy bills over everything else.

If you really can't then all you can do is be more scrupulous about not drying washing inside, ventilating, mopping up and heating just enough to keep on top of it. I used to use old rags to mop up - do not dry them indoors or all the water you remove from the windows is just going straight back into your indoor air.

We live in a similar house and do dry washing indoors. We have a small window open in every room. In the bedrooms their open 24/7 and have been shut once when it reached -17 outside. The downstairs windows get shut at around 6pm in winter time and left open all summer.

How expensive are dehumidifiers to run? But if you do that, make sure you do shut all the widows or you'll be dehumidifying the country!

we used to supply commercial ones to dry houses out (floods etc) and they didn't seem expensive to run, but it was a few years ago and saved a lot of repair work so that may have been 'in comparison'

id say if you're going to get one, get the best one you can afford/afford to run. Look at commercial ones, rather than wee domestic ones.

Agree opening bedroom windows is a big thing for cutting condensation from breath - there is a reason Victorians wore night caps, they do work.

I use mini damp traps all over the place (room corners, cupboards)

repainted damp walls with anti damp / mould paint (you can buy an additive for normal paint)

use a towel on windowsill to catch any water

air rooms every day

if I get any black damp mould anywhere I immediately use bleach to remove

Apart from ensuring that we always left some ventilation from windows (keeping them open just a crack makes a massive difference) we bought a decent dehumidifier. There are plenty on the market but most are pretty ineffectual. We bought the Meaco low energy one and it is excellent.

We also bought a hygrometer thermometer that can inform of the exact humidity in the room and tell you what the dew point is. The dew point is the temperature at which the humidity in the room will condense into water. Clearly you found your dew point was under 15 degrees but by dehumidifying even slightly you can bring that dew point lower.

This is the one

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000GFTH1M/ref=assllpctfftil?tag=herihous-21&linkCode=w00&linkId=1038e1f1638c9ae983f1b12a2282918c&creativeASIN=B000GFTH1M

there is a reason Victorians wore night caps, they do work.

I don't understand; how do they work against condensation?

No, they work to keep you warm in draughts, and draughts help reduce condensation

I'm not pro-Victorian poverty btw, this situation we are all facing is shit.

How does a dehumidifier work, our bedroom is away from the othr bedrooms and on another floor, does the dehumidifier work for the whole house or just in that room?

Thanks for the dehumidifier recommendations, I struggling with damp in my cellar, despite a new window with more flow of air, etc.

Damp is something that makes me incredibly nervous.

Also 1930's semi, we have extra blankets and open the windows when we go to bed. Otherwise the walls are running with water by morning

The damp traps from b and M etc work well and cost nothing to run.
I have also read that cat litter absorbs damp.

It will work for that room only, so keep the door closed. Once that room is dried out, you can move it to another room if needed. It's shocking how much water they collect in a short amount of time.

we have three in a big old house - two upstairs and one downstairs. The amount of water they extract is staggering!

Loft insulation is good. We have windows open all the time, and on vent mode overnight.

We have a dehumidifier in my kids room but I don't find it does much, it's just a small domestic one though. And obviously we then have to keep the windows shut, I never know what's more effective.

My eldest daughter has so many breathing issues and winter makes it all worse.
It's just fucking depressing.

Damp traps sound good, haven't ever heard of them. Thank you.

Isnt it more cost effective to have the heating on for an hour rather than run a dehumidifier for hours?
Although im not sure how long they are on for