Condensation in your home?

As temperatures drop and frost arrives, so too does condensation in our homes. With condensation comes damp and mould growth, three unwelcome guests we could all do without this holiday season! 

Condensation forms when warm moist air meets a cold surface, causing water droplets to form. This often happens on and around windows in winter, however it can also occur on walls ceilings, and other junctions in your home. While this can happen in any room, it is particularly common in moist areas of your home such as kitchens, utilities and bathrooms.

If condensation is not handled swiftly, the excess water will encourage mould growth which can affect your respiratory health and comfort. It can also deteriorate the building fabric of your home, and in severe cases, degrade the structural integrity. Rather than let this happen, we’ve outlined natural and mechanical ventilation methods to help reduce condensation and keep your home comfortable. 

1.    Natural ventilation

Even through the cold weather, it’s important to open your windows every day to let moisture out. This should be done for short time periods across the day. Opening windows in opposite sides of your house at the same time will create crossflow ventilation, drawing moist air out of the centre of your house. 

However, if you don’t feel comfortable opening windows this often, you should open the trickle vents. If your windows don’t have trickle vents, it may be possible to retrofit these, depending on the style and material of your windows. Trick vents allow a small amount of air to flow thorough, drawing out moisture without letting as much cold air in as opening the windows fully. 

2.    Mechanical ventilation

Besides natural ventilation, you can also remove moist air from your home with mechanical ventilation. You might already have an extract in your bathroom and kitchen, however if other rooms in your home are suffering from damp you should consider retrofitting mechanical ventilation.

This can come in the form of a centralised or decentralised system. Centralised mechanical extract ventilation systems (MEV) consist of a mechanical vent in each room, connected to a central system which dispels the moist air to outside. This runs continuously at a low rate, and increases when higher moisture levels are detected.  

You could also consider a mechanical ventilation heat recovery system (MVHR). This is another whole house system connected to a central unit, but also provides fresh air. Heat loss is reduced by transferring heat from the warm moist air to the fresh air. 

Depending on the structure and layout of your house, it might be difficult to retrofit a full house system. In this case, a decentralised mechanical extract ventilation system (dMEV) might be the best option. This is a singular fan which can be installed in each room, running consistently to extract moist air directly to outside. As a house-wide ducting system and central unit is not required, this option is significantly easier to retrofit into your home.