Condensation causes and advice
Although children love it, condensation on windows, doors and conservatories is not as much fun for homeowners. Hopefully, in this guide to condensation causes and advice at Homelink, we can help to reduce the effects of it.
What is condensation?
In its simplest term, condensation in the home is the water that results when warm air hits the cold surface of the window pane.
All air contains water vapour, this is usually invisible to the naked eye. In normal room conditions air contains about 40 to 60% moisture. The warmer the air, the more water vapour can be contained in it.
If you think of the steam cloud from an iron or a kettle.
However, there is a limit to the amount of water vapour the air can hold and when that limit is reached the air is classed as saturated.
Ultimately, when this saturated air comes into contact with a surface that is cooler, it chills and sheds its surplus water.
Factors effecting condensation
There are three main factors that govern the amount of condensation within our home and they are:
- Moisture within the air – produced by normal living activities such as washing and cooking, that can be controlled by extractor fans
- Internal room temperature – can be controlled by monitoring the controls on the heating and by introducing quality double glazing to increase the internal surface temperature, enabling it to hold more vapour without condensing.
- External room temperature – although this cannot be controlled internally, it can be countered by altering the indoor heating.
Modern day living
Good ventilation within the home helps to reduce the issues that arise from too much saturated air, as warm moisture ridden air is expelled before it gets the chance to cool.
Changes in modern day living conditions that have aimed to improve the comfort within our homes have also, restricted the natural ventilation that used to occur naturally.
In period properties traditional open fire places, draughty windows, gapped floorboards and high ceilings used to be prominent and all helped to reduce condensation.
However, these have been replaced by a mixture of sophisticated heating systems, draught excluders, fitted carpets and lowered ceilings. All intended to make rooms warmer and cosier, but ultimately also reducing the means for water vapour to escape.
The problems caused by condensation
Condensation on windows, doors and in conservatories causes damage to the surrounding paintwork, curtains, wallpaper, window fittings and other nearby coverings.
If condensation continues to occur over a prolonged period of time, other issues will start to occur. Initial signs such as damp patches on walls, peeling wallpaper and ultimately black mould growth will start to appear. These can then lead to possible health issues.
Health issues caused by condensation
As well as condensation, a lack of ventilation caused by our airtight homes can cause large amounts of indoor pollutants that can lead to problems such as mould and damp in the home.
These pollutants may then trigger health implications such as asthma. Problems such as damp, moisture and mould can not only cause asthma, but may also cause other respiratory problems such as allergies, bronchitis and even lung disease.
The dilemma
Therefore, we are left with a dilemma of how to reduce condensation within our home, without sacrificing the benefits that our newly acquired comforts from modern living grants us.
The answer
When double glazing is used in conjunction with controlled heating and appropriate ventilation then we can start to solve the problem and find the happy balance we require.
How double glazing helps reduce condensation
As an insulator, double glazing is designed to reduce the loss of heat from inside to out of a building or property.
Therefore, when a room is heated, the room side surface temperature of the internal facing unit will be higher than that of a single one.
At Homelink, we install a wide range of windows, doors and conservatories that not only look great, help reduce bills, but also help reduce condensation, whilst looking after the environment.
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