To not open windows at home ALL THE EFFING TIME

[R1cciteddy]

My mum is driving me mad with this… she constantly has her windows open at home. No matter the weather. Strangely it’s the kitchen windows she keeps shut. She’s always having a go at me for not opening my windows enough. I’m sick of it I don’t want to freeze. I do sometimes open windows when it’s cold for a bit of ventilation but NOT ALL THE TIME! Yes, my dad pays the bills, not her. Ps my bathroom and kitchen windows are open often. Please help as I’m made to feel like a bad person and that my daughter will have respiratory issues when she’s older due to ventilation. Yes my mother is nuts so they will be open when she visits! AIBU not to open them enough!?

My patio door is open all day every day probably until mid December, then a couple of months of just open a few hours. Bedroom window open permanently. I love fresh air!.

This is insane if you live in the UK - your house must be freezing if you have your back door open for a few hours every day December - February and a window open permanently too. Or are you heating your house while you have the door and window open? (Also insane and not great for the environment.)

We're

We're in the SE and average temp has been around 15 so windows have been open quite a bit. If not open properly, windows are on the catch most of the day. I only switch heating on for an hour or so in the evening or heat bedrooms at night where the windows will be closed. I'm definitely a windows open person - though less so when it's minus temperatures. The last place we lived was terrible for damp so I think that's where the habit come from.

I pretty much never open the windows in winter. I live in an old wooden house, its built to "breathe" so doesn't need the extra ventilation from open windows generally and has proper vents in most of the rooms. Been opening the upstairs windows for 5 minutes every morning this autumn though because not been heating the upstairs yet and don't want to risk any damp issues but its just 5 minutes (set a timer so I don't forget to close them and end up with freezing rooms!)

I find that having windows open to allow ventilation lowers humidity and as the humidity lowers the temperature rises…so a ventilated, fresh house heats better than one that gets stale and humid.

Can I raise you my inlaws, who have a through lounge diner which is most of their house where the front windows can’t open (as in, when they replaced them they deliberately didn’t choose anything that opens) and the back ones look onto a conservatory.

Upstairs is sealed but at least has opening windows, the first time I do if we stay there is go round and open the windows.

I have trickle vents open year round
Living room window is open for a good few hours a day as the cat goes in and out via it!

I find that having windows open to allow ventilation lowers humidity and as the humidity lowers the temperature rises

Hmm.. opening windows to lower humidity will not make your house warmer. This is why you can't heat a house with a dehumidifier.

This is simply not true. It has no scientific or other basis or logic to it.

If you're in the UK, your house only reached 18 degrees if you had the heating on, which is incredibly wasteful.

You don't care about the environment, either, I take it.

You're all smelly wimps. I love fresh air so much I've taken all my windows and doors out, in fact I'm about to take the roof off as well. Anything less is just unspeakably grim.

I think people are not understanding that there is a massive difference between new builds and older properties. Despite rarely opening a window the air in my house is changed regularly by the assorted drafts from chimney, floors gaps under doors, air bricks etc. This is not happening in a hermetically sealed new build.

I think the opinions just reflect the level of diversity in living.

I used to know someone who had two house cats and a dog. They would never open the windows because "the cats would get out".

The whole house stank of cat piss, dog hair, farts and sometimes pungent cooking odours all together in an unholy mix. Obviously most sane people living in this sort of environment would open the windows.

OTOH if you are two people living alone in a larger house then you can probably get by without opening them without having huge effect on the air quality as the space is probably big enough to cope with the humidity and most of any smells produced disperse naturally.

With stuff like trickle vents, the fact that the vent is open all the time more than compensates for the small surface area, so you probably get the same amount of ventilation, just over the entire day and not all in one hit. You average house "smell" varies less than people that open the windows who go from being in a stinky house to one full of clean air very quickly and therefore perceive that more good is being done when in fact all they are doing is letting out all the warm air at once.

I think all new buildings have to have trickle vents by regulation.

It will cost a lot less in energy than the repair cost of dealing with damp and mould from lack ventilation.

It doesn't cost anything to have the windows open.

It doesn't cost anything to have the windows open.

Of course it does unless you’re happy for your inside temperature to be the same as the outside temperature.

@Bestcatmum

if course there us! Fresh air is important.

masking smells with crap like incense, is revolting

W@Ffsmakeitstop

their reaction is to 'chemicals' not 'smells' so no, it doesn't mean your house doesn't smell of non chemical things shoes/body odour/animals/cooking/toilet etc

im not saying it does, just that your theory is incorrect.

New builds aren't hermetically sealed. The Building Regulations require adequate ventilation, usually via trickle ventilation.

But you get fresh air without having to open windows.

I certainly hope you do! Haven’t opened mine since a rare warm day in September and I haven’t suffocated yet!

That science is happening in my house every day. This morning I closed my bedroom window - it has been open all night. It was 17.5 deg in the room and 66% relative humidity. I turned on the dehumidifier for half an hour, decreasing the humidity to 55% relative humidity and increasing the temperature to 18.4deg. No heating on, nobody in the room, just changing room parameters. So I don’t know about scientific basis, but physical evidence based results are what I’m going by.

I posted that last night when it was about 11 degrees outside. I didnt have the heating on at the time but it had been on for about an hour earlier in the day

For example I often have the heating on in the car but the window open a crack. It doesnt get cold in the car but equally I have fresh air in the car.

Right now, I dont have the heating on and it hasnt been on since yesterday morning, its 18 in here now. But its 15 outside so much warmer than yesterday.