Is anyone else having mould problems due to not using their heating?

[Charlize43]

I've had mould problems before on external walls but it seems more prevalent since I tried to avoid putting the heating on this year due to the cost. Trying to dry clothes indoors takes much longer for them to dry and I'm noticing a great deal of moisture building up on the windows.

AIBU - Not to put the heating on when drying clothes. In the long run, this going to cause a much bigger problem with mould and damp.

YANBU - Just keep washing the mould off with bleach or distilled vinegar and put a jumper on if you are cold. Wash your clothes less often.

Is anyone else experiencing this?

Our heating is on - up to 19 a couple of short periods a day. If we don't use it we have to use the combi washer dryer nearly every day for towels and clothes so what's the point?

I did say this on a few threads earlier in the year. Heating is not just about keeping your body warm. DS has asthma and cannot breathe cold damp air.

If you're not putting heating on on principle as opposed to not being able to afford to, it will cause you problems. Especially as a tenant.

First poster nailed it.

I just noticed we have mould this year having turned the thermostat down a couple of degrees. It's making me think we need to heat a bit more.

Dehumidifiers work but do factor in the running costs, and trade it off between heating and other energy use if money is tight. Gas is still a lot cheaper than electric. It might make more sense to turn the thermostat back up sometimes than to sit in the freezing cold running a dehumidifier and heated airer. The running costs of the gadgets are low per hour but if you're running them several hours a day they do mount up. Except for the window vac, that's cheap to run as you're not using any electric to condense the water.

Doctor on BBC1 now talking about this

Does anyone know why I'm still getting condensation even with open windows? This morning it was even on the windows that were open.. I ventilate as much as I can and there is always a window in each room open just a little bit at least. Haven't had hearing on yet but sometimes use the little electric heater. Condensation just seems worse this year!

Our ensuite shower room is a nightmare at the moment definitely not helped by having 3 external walls, I'm constantly cleaning the ceiling - our extractor fan has stopped working - .

Instead of fitting a new extractor night this other machine be a better alternative for that room, from a heat and damp/condensation perspective?

So I would remove extractor & fit a larger one by making hole bigger, but replace with single unit heat recovery unit. Most bathroom fans are way too small but fulfill the air removal requirements, usually a 4 inch unit that removes absolute zilch. All our were upgraded to 5inch, a huge difference

Our bathroom is horrendous as it has no heat source and a sloped roof directly to roof tiles with no insulation in between. The window has to stay open but it sucks the warmth from upstairs and doesn't take the moisture out with it!
Using the bathroom at all in winter is awful 😞

i can cope with a cool house, as can my family, so I’ve not worried too much about the heating but our new house is v old and gets damp if cold so I’ve sort of been forced to put it on! But I knew that moving into an old house we’d have this problem

Yeah we didn't run our heating in October (it's been so mild) but existing damp and mould problems now a lot worse. I don't think there's any way to avoid the expense of heating out house properly unless we want to risk health problems and damage to house from damp.

sorry I’m not sure what you mean.
on non-eco mode the boiler comes on periodically to heat the hot water, and that was enough to also warm up the bathroom.

that was supposed to be a reply to mogs
“Eco mode means that your preheat settings are off. ‘& the hot water will take slightly longer to reach the tap. Absolutely nothing to do with the boiler cycling”

I should have mentioned that the boiler is in the bathroom!

It's been raining. Pretty much all of November but now it's cold too. All that moisture is attracted to the cold glass. That's why it collects There

I have mostly triple glazed windows which are amazing. Hardly any water collects but the 3 older double glazed wood windows are shit and
We get tonnes of water.

They are being changed next year.

No I don't but I'm going to get one!
Stupid question....do I just squeegee the tiled walls and shower screen?
Our main bathroom only has a shower over the bath (ensuite has a proper shower but it's all plumbed in to a shitty macerator so I don't tend to use it)
Is it still worthwhile for one and a half tiled walls and a small screen?

Definitely worth it as they cost around £5 and are very effective at removing surface water. You could also remove the water that tends to sit in the bath!

Cheers Mogs - I'll mention this to the electrician.

Sorry, also ate they much more expensive than an extractor?

It's rained a lot so even the outdoor air is quite humid.

Warm air holds more water than cold air, so I think the best way is to let the house heat up, so the condensation goes back into the warmer air, and then open the window which will suck all the warm, moist air out into the cooler outdoors, taking the moisture with it.

If it wasn't so rainy then at least you'd have drier air outside, but at the moment I think you've got cold air holding near to its max amount of water both inside and outside. The air movement from the open window will help some evaporate a bit, but nothing like as much as it would if it were drier outside and/or warmer inside.

I don’t recognise this battle. I’ve lived in the UK all my life and have never encountered a mould problem. I currently live in a mid 19th century terrace with no damp course and lime plaster. Obviously that means it needs to breathe, but battle? No.
I open the small bathroom window and close the door for an hour or so after showering which prevents damp building up in there. I open my bedroom windows for a bit every day as I like the air in there to be fresh (it’s door is always shut to keep my cats out). Open the back door for a little while in the morning if it’s not absolutely freezing or very damp outside. Heating is set to 18 (thermostat in living room) for 2 hours in the morning (comes on for about 30 mins at the moment) and from 5-10 in the evening. No battle, no damp.

The more water you push down the plughole the better. But obviously it is the law of diminishing returns. If you are not seeing much water ending up in the tray at the bottom or the bath it is less worth doing.

Swiping all the water in the bath/shower tray into the plughole for me normally gets much more water down the plughole than the shower doors and takes about 10 seconds. I'm willing to do that just to avoid cleaning up the dissolved deposits/nasty pink stuff that gets left behind otherwise !

@cardibach i don’t have any mould either, but that’s because I do the things you describe. With no heating and moisture build up inside it would be a different story I think.

@Notcontent probably - but it’s not exactly a battle, is it? I haven’t got to run round wiping things or buying window vacuums or having windows open so much it’s freezing. I’m a bit confused about the idea it’s inevitable in the UK.

If it's a choice between eating and heating - eat

Any other choice - put the heating on, the cold and the mould and the bleach are all harmful to your health

But even if heating is on during the evening people aren’t going to leave it on during the night when it is coldest, so you’ll still have a solid eight hours of very cold weather causing damp/mould.

I’ve never had mould in a house that I can remember, and I’ve lived in 22 houses. I agree with @cardibach that it’s something that inevitably happens in the U.K.

Ok and??? Congratulations do you want a sticker?! Many of us are having mould issues and can’t realistically have the heating on for hours every single day. Just because your home isn’t attracting mould. Most of the rooms in my house have no mould in them but a couple do and smug posts like yours aren’t helpful. You aren’t a hero because you aren’t getting mould, my old house had absolutely no mould in it but this house attracts it for some reason.

I don’t think she was being smug, just refuting the suggestion that’s it’s a constant battle everyone in the U.K. has.