One way to tell if your home needs humidity control is to look out the window. Condensation on window glass in the form of droplets or fog can be a warning sign that indoor humidity levels are trending high. Water vapor in the air naturally condenses when it contacts any surface colder than the dew point. On a chilly winter day, the inside of window glass is typically one of the coldest exposed surfaces in the house.
Condensation on windows creates two immediate problems:
- Wooden window frames and sills that are frequently wet due to condensation run-off often harbor mold growth and prematurely deteriorate.
- Moist, dripping glass always looks streaked and spotted and is difficult to keep clean.
Window condensation can also represent a more serious long-term red flag, however. While glass usually provides an early signal of indoor condensation, it’s not the only spot where it occurs. Warm, overly humid indoor air seeping into cold exterior wall cavities during winter, for example, may condense and trigger toxic mold growth concealed inside the wall. Also, heated air rising in living spaces may penetrate the ceiling and condense as it enters the cold attic, saturating attic insulation and activating mold.
Home humidity control to reduce condensation involves keeping humidity at the lower end of the recommended range of 30% to 50%. Here are ways to make it happen:
- Vent humid rooms. All bathrooms plus the kitchen should have vent fans that remove humid air and vent it to the outside through dedicated ducts.
- Install a whole-house dehumidifier. Mounted inside your heating/cooling ductwork, these units continuously sense indoor humidity and maintain it to the setting entered on a digital humidistat. Permanently plumbed into the household drain system, they require no daily user maintenance.
- Consider a heat recovery ventilator. An HRV provides balanced fresh air ventilation in winter without opening windows. Incorporating a central heat exchanger, the unit recovers up to 70% of heat from indoor air before it is exhausted, then transfers that heat to incoming cold fresh air.
For more about home humidity control to prevent mold contamination, contact Rytech, Inc.
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