Talk to me about condensation

[HeyMacWey]

Since autumn has appeared overnight I woke up this morning to find condensation on all the windows.

How can I minimise it?

Central heating is not yet on. House is double glazed bar two windows and generally warm in the mornings.

Have a woodburner and the last few days have been putting it on about 2ish and then putting load of coal on at about 5pm so it simmers gently all evening and ensures that it's warm when dh gets in about 11ish.

Today I've kept the upstairs windows open a few cm to keep air flowing to see if that makes a difference.

Should I keep them open all night?

Clothes have been line dried and then finished off on an airer in the bathroom with the extractor on (door closed).

I've been squeegeeing the water off first thing and then noticed condensation building up on the unglazed windows when it gets dark.

Should I put the central heating on for an hour or would that not make a difference?

Any tips most welcome

If you have noticed condensation on unglazed windows you might be going barmy

Ha ha - I meant single glazed

" I woke up this morning to find condensation on all the windows. How can I minimise it? "

That's an easy one.

You must stop breathing during the night.

Alternatively, open the window a crack, or leave the door ajar.

The reason is that your breath is moist (there is also some perspiration).

It helps to open the bedroom windows every morning after you have thrown back the bedding, and leavem the open until after breakfast, when the housework fairies make the beds. This keeps the bedrooms generally drier and prevents an accumulation of moisture*

*As well as forming on the cold glass, condensation also forms on other cold surfaces, such as outside walls. It is not so noticeable, and tends to soak in. Airing the room helps to dry it out. After cavity wall insulation, the walls are less cold, so not so prone to condensation; but the amount of water vapour in the room is the same, so more of it condenses on the windows, where it is more noticeable. This causes some ignorant people to proclaim that CWI causes condensation.

Yep windows are flung open in all upstairs rooms all year round to air for approx an hour every morning. Our bedroom window is sometimes open for a few hours as dh works shifts so if he's asleep in the day I'll keep the window open.

Contemplating making some kind of face mask that I could use to extract warm air up the chimney

how old is the house?

It's 120 years old. Pretty sure cwi was installed before we moved in approx 15 years ago. Plenty of insulation in the loft. Air bricks downstairs in the right places.

I noticed before it got cold about a week ago there was condensation on the outside of the upstairs double glazed windows first thing (7am).

at 120 years it is very unlikely to have CWI except in modern extensions.

At that age it might be moist air coming up from under the ground floor, or damp walls if the gutters, downpipes or roof are overspilling or leaking.

Is there a water meter? There might be a plumbing leak, including from unseen radiator pipes, or under the floor.

Once you put on the CH, there will be a few days of extra moist as the heat dries out the walls.

Water vapour is lighter than air so tends to rise through the house until it either escapes or finds a cold surface to condense on. But leave the internal doors closed for a couple of nights to see if there are rooms that seem particularly bad

If you are using a bathroom extractor and it is effective (most aren't) and are not draping wet washing, there might not be much you can do. Have a sniff under the floorboards. There is probably bare earth beneath. Does it look or smell damp?

Any disused chimneys should be ventilated top and bottom.

Excellent - will check out under the floorboards in the next few days.

I'm sure when we moved in there was some mention of some wall insulation that had been infected in. Will have to check the paperwork.

It could well be that as it's been so mild and then suddenly cold the house hasn't had a chance to heat through gradually hence the sudden noticeable condensation.

Thanks for your excellent advice.

as PJ notes, if you don't want condensation you need to stop breathing.

windows in occupied bedrooms in my house are coated with water each morning now - laws of physics. So I wipe it off, open the windows for 20 mins, squeeze out the cloth and leave it to dry outside. Once windows are dry I close up. We heat the place in the evening but not normally during the day, it gets enough sun not to need it.

also do washing only on sunny days (no dryer), lids on pans, etc etc. And showers in this house are five mins long.

We have this. I bought a Karcher window vac when it was half price and it is brilliant. No more dealing with sopping wet ssqueegees every morning.

Useful thread. Thank you. Same situation here really. House is 104 years old, end of terrace double glazed through out. I think we need to open more windows for longer and more often. And maybe breath less. Especially DH.

I have this. Single glazed windows you can feel the wind through so opening the windows makes no difference. Very old house.

We also get black and pink mould on the walls which we clean off occasionally. One part of the wall gets so damp the paper has just come off.

Useless landlord.

We need to move...

I was eyeing up those window vacs this morning as bored with wringing out soggy rags.

Might try and limit shower times.
I think because dh works shifts he generally showers in the middle of the day so the bathroom has just dried out from being used in the morning only to get a soaking a few hours later. He doesn't realise that he needs to keep the bathroom door closed when he's finished to stop the most air wafting about the house.

But if you keep the bathroom door closed and airless after surely that will just create damp/condensation problems in the bathroom?

Bathroom extractor was mentioned.

Normally either have the window open when showering and or extractor afterwards.
Is is better to have the door open or closed? Window open or closed? If it's damp outside I normally close the window and leave the extractor on.
Extractor is only a few months old. It's in the ceiling and ducted out through the roof.

Get a dehumidifier.

Another vote for karcher window vac. Dh thought it was a gimmick when i first bought it, but we now use it daily and I'm always astounded at the amount of water it sucks up. Deeply satisfying! Good for window cleaning too.

extactor fan on = windows and doors closed
window = opening a tiny little bit, preferably high up for a short time during/after shower. then open as wide as poss for anothe 15 min or so. door closed

Bathroom extractor works best with door and window shut. It creates suction which prevents the steam diffusing round the house. It sucks in air from the house through the gap under the door.

The warm air and steam rises towards the ceiling where it is sucked out. The cooler dry air stratifies and lies underneath it.

If the window is open it disturbs this airflow. The fan may suck out the air that just just entered through the window, and if the wind is in the wrong direction, it may push the steam into the house.

Some of the inline ducted fans that go above the ceiling are rather big, but can be three times as powerful as cheap wall fans. They use little electricity.

Right - will be implementing a new post shower airing routine!

Seems less condensation this morning so will carry on with having the upstairs windows ajar.

Can you borrow a dehumidifier from someone to see if that helps?

We have terrible problems with condensation here - quite a modern house - about 40 years old. We open the windows every day and squeegy them off every morning. Last year we had a dehumidifier also and whilst it collected a lot of water every day, I'm not sure it made much difference to the condensation problem. We do dry some clothes in the house - just the stuff that cannot be tumble dried. As we live in Wales, the washing could be out all day in the autumn/winter and never seems to dry. I have just about given up trying to solve the problem and now just manage it.

Another window vac fan here. We've only had ours less than a week but the timing was just right as the temperature dropped and the windows started dripping the day after it arrived. It hoovers it all up perfectly. Also fantastic on glass shower screens, it's a lot easier to quickly hoover them than to scrub off the water marks later.

I did wonder if it was a sign that the double glazing seal had gone but that would be steam in between the panes, wouldn't it?