Double glazing - do you still get condensation?

[sammydavis]

Trying to get a handle on whether 'modern' double glazing (as opposed to say 10-20year old double glazing, sash windows, crittall windows, single glazing etc) is a barrier to condensation - leaving aside clothes on radiators, ventilation, water from breathing, bathing, drinking and general existing.

How old is your double glazing and do you still have to wipe up condensation in this weather?

Anyone beaten condensation and would attribute it to new double glazing? Which brand or product did you go for?

Anyone find it didn't make a difference?

Hi Sammy, just wanted to say thank you for starting this thread. I've been wondering about this as well (as have all the other people with their own problems with condensation who have joined in). Sorry you've had people join in to patronise you then get snotty when you have been frustrated with that rather than being "appropriately grateful".

Thanks to PaperFlowers and her interesting info re Finnish windows!

Also found that closing the curtains at night in the bedroom, caused more condensation than in the bedroom with curtains not drawn.

We used to have single glazed windows. Very old and rattling single glazed windows. The amount of condensation everywhere was ridiculous. There used to be puddles of water on the window-sill every single morning without fail. The house was freezing.

Then we got double glazed windows everywhere. House still gets nippy. Condensation on windows is minimal and some days we don't have any. Our problem now though is mould. I will admit that we have been lax in the airing out of the house, so trying to improve on that I just really dislike the cold We also have some water marks on the wall and have been told it's due to condensation and we need insulated board put up in the loft. So there has been a big positive to the condensation problem but it's left us with some mould problems. BIL used to own this house before we did and MIL goes on about BIL never having problems with mould before but that was due to the single glazed windows and the fact it was like living outside before we got the double glazed windows.

We get condensation on the bottom of bedroom windows - not a big in itself, but it puddles on the windowsill and often gets forgotten and it not doing the windowsills any good :(

No way round it that I know since I can't stop people breathing all night !

My bedroom was always the worst, but always shut the door to keep heat in. Only me in the bed on the other side from window. Assumed it was my breathing as bedroom is small, compared to other people's. But realise I should keep door open. The modern convector radiators are better at drying the humidity than the old flat panel rads.

Glad to hear new windows helped your problem digerd.

I've been warned about the condensation on the outside of the glass by the window company. They say it's a good sign.

I know, but I was horrified the first time I opened my curtains as thought it was on the inside of the 2 pains, and it was like looking at thick mist in the garden instead of my lovely view. It was in January 2008. Don't look anymore as leave the curtains closed until later in the morning.

Well i have old dg at the back if my house and newer at the front - only 5 years old.
Both get condensation, the older windows worse.
When i was a child we didnt have dg and git condensation.
Its not really something you can avoid
Perhaps purchase a dehumidifier?

We dont get much condensation thanks to 4m high ceilings, my obsession with airing the house and religious airing of bathroom after showers even when freezing outside. But when we put in secondary glazing, the condenation disappeared from the rooms where we put it. Hth.

I leave my windows slightly open all the time, and still get really bad condensation in our bedroom every night (think absolutely dripping, can't see out of them all day). If I have to dry washing in the house I always put it in the small bedroom with the dehumidifier on - I never dry it in our bedroom.

Accidentally left the heating on all night last night and for the first time that I can remember during winter we have no condensation this morning!!

When I close the curtains in front of patio doors, in the morning there is some condensation lower down - metal framed 50 years old-, only in the winter. I drew the curtains back, so that the warmer air of the room could get to them, and low and behold - no condensation. The new UPVC patio doors are thicker and don't fit the opening, so rather than have the wall knocked down to make the opening bigger, I left them as they were.
I do not get condensation on the inside of my front windows as is a bungalow and the sofits overhang and protect. The back is a flat roof extension so no overhanging roof also open to fields and a canal and is always colder outside than the front.

Ha ha OP just how rude are you I thought I was on AIBU for a moment

Someone in our family's bought a new build house and the extractor fans in the kitchen, utility, 4 bathrooms all run 24/7. Luckily they are silent.

Is this now standard practice?

It's an old thread but here's some info anyway.

For winter 2015/16 I've run an experiment using a couple of frozen 500ml bottles of water placed in small plastic dishes on my bedroom window sill overnight. Result? Bone dry windows in the morning with the condensation (caused by me breathing!) in the plastic dishes. No other windows in the house are affected overnight or at any other time. It's the same physics as a dehumidifier uses - air migrates to the coldest spot ( usually windows) and condenses there if the temperature is below the air's dewpoint. In a dehumidifier the air is drawn into a refrigeration unit where it dumps the moisture. For next winter I'll posh it up a bit!

That's a really great idea!!! I'll have to make a note of that for next winter.

So, if I froze a 3/4 full two litre plastic bottle and stood it upright in a basin, all of the moisture in the air should condense on the bottle and run into the basin - how easy does that sound!

Shame I'll have to wait until December to try it but hey ho!

I think it's a surface area thing too so a single bottle of the same volume might not be as effective. Time to do a pi x r x r x h calculation! However, I suspect that splitting the surface area along the sill is also a factor, hence two bottles. Night time temperatures outside are still under 7°C so this will still work. Something else to think about - even if double glazing was thermally perfect the moisture in the bedroom air would still condense in a cool spot in the room if it was lower than the dew point. So, mould behind a wardrobe near the floor? Better to attract it to an icy couple of bottles, collect it in the morning and tip it into a wash basin. Finally, when it was sub-zero outside I used two 1litre bottles. The amount of condensate in the morning can be very surprising. A final point - stand the collecting dishes on a couple of tissues to avoid cooling the sill too much.

thanks for that tip Blackbird1100 it has been noted!

Fantastic - love it! Two or more bottles it is - quite warm where I am at the moment - but roll on winter!