Condensation problem questions

awacko

Hi ,
Looking for advice please. We’ve been trying to get to bottom of a condensation problem we’ve been having. We’re getting new double glazing installed this week which will help provide better ventilation (and insulation) – we hope !. We seem to have cold spots in some of our rooms so are thinking about cavity wall insulation so
Question 1 – does this really cause damp problems and what is the best type to get. There seems to be mixed messages on the internet.

We have a flueless fire, which we’ve just realised by chance through a comment
from a friend and subsequent internet research could be causing much of the
problem also. We’ve had this fire about 5 years and have always used this as the
main source of heating in the living room and to be honest we only put the central heating when we feel the other rooms are too cold.
Question 2 – Can we still use the fire on down low or should we stop using it all together ?.
Question 3 – Is the best way to use central heating to heat our living room etc to turn the thermostat down low and have the heating set to say go on for 15 mins then off for 15 etc or is there a better way of using it. As I say , we’ve always used the fire as the main heat source and the central heating as secondary but now reckon it should be the other way about – but we want to try and get it right without it costing us a fortune.

Sorry for going on , but any advice / comments would be much appreciated. Thanks

nick.simpson19

Do you have any ventilation in your front room? (airvent)

A good purchase for you would be a wireless room thermostat that way you could set your thermostat at 21c in front room for example and when it reaches 21c the central heating would swithc off! Obviously you can use the thermostat anywhere you like in the house!

naijapower

nick.simpson19 wrote: »

Do you have any ventilation in your front room? (airvent)

A good purchase for you would be a wireless room thermostat that way you could set your thermostat at 21c in front room for example and when it reaches 21c the central heating would swithc off! Obviously you can use the thermostat anywhere you like in the house!

Is this wireless thermostat compatible with most heating systems? Where can i get one?

nick.simpson19

yeah should be.

I got mine from screwfix pretty simple to fit too

http://www.screwfix.com/prods/93829/Plumbing/Central-Heating-Controls/Horstmann-HRFS1-Room-Thermostat

thats the exact same one as ive got seems to be very good one indeed!

ariba10

Regarding condensation will this site help?

http://www.harfordsonline.com/downloads/condensation%20info.pdf

zimm143

Hi Op,

Our flat suffers dreadfully from condensation. What has helped hugely is installing a new extracotr in the bathroom and also keeping akitchen window open when we cook thus elimiating 2 big sources of water in the house. Other than that I cannot recommend a dehumidifer strongly enough, ours cost £99 but is amazing, even means we can dry clothes inside without the windows having condensation running down them. hugely reduced our blaock mould issues.

kate

Canucklehead

Hi

I would get the fire serviced. Don't use it until you have.
Flueless fires are intended to be a secondary source of heat. As you have been using it for primary it would have had much more use than normal. Have you been feeling ok whilst using the fire? No headaches or flu symptoms?
The condensation will decrease when you stop using it.

Corgi Guy.

awacko

Thanks to all posters so far. Fire is serviced on a regular basis so no worries there.Are dehumidifiers expensive to run and do you need to have one in different rooms ?

Canucklehead

Good morning: We run one 200 watt dehumidifier which doesn't add much to the electric bills but it can't keep up with the condensation/mould formation :eek: and is noisy to boot (also have an extractor in the kitchen and bathroom, no gas fire of any type).
The OH will be installing a mechanical ventilation/heat recovery system from Vaillant in our home later this year. The cavity wall, loft insulation and double glazing have effectively sealed up the house...opening windows for ventilation during a cold winter isn't a reasonable/logical alternative for us.

HTH

Canucklehead

zimm143

Ours costs soemthing like 3 pence an hour to run. We run it in the hall and if you leave doors open it covers the flat (476 sq feet) if you have more than 2/3 beds though you may need two.

dawn27

we have had condensation problems and have found a few things to work.

• Run cold water in the bath first then add the hot and you won't have steam everywhere.
• If showering open the bathroom window and close the door, to stop steam getting into the other rooms
• Keep the rooms at a constant temperature, having your radiators on low in rooms you don't use and higher in the rooms you use more helps
• open a window in the kitchen when cooking
• try not to dry clothes inside on the radiators, put them outside if possible even if only for a few hours to get most of the water out of them, then finish them off on the radiators

we have had cavity wall insulation installed and it doesn't make any difference, it won't solve the condensation problem