Condensation

Jo*_2

Hi, hopefully someone can shed some light on this. I've just been reading this thread http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2146265 and i have a similar problem.

I live in a ground floor flat and every winter the windows on one side of the building are half covered in condensation. Once a week i do dry washing on airers and radiators but this happens every day regardless. I noticed its worse if i have vases of water with flowers in, or if i leave the washing up bowl with water in it. Often enough i wipe them down in the mornings but they just condense up again. I always use two extractor fans when cooking in the kitchen, and use the fan and open the window in the bathroom although those two rooms are not a problem.

Where am i going wrong?

I also noticed that the door to the garden which everyone in the building has access to, also is condensed up all the time now on the inside, and the ceiling near it has black spots on it. There's no radiator out there. Is that mould? I dont have any signs of it in my flat.

Thanks for any advice etc

WestonDave

If you dry washing inside on the radiators etc, you will have water evaporating into the air over a long period of time. That will raise the relative humidity in the flat, and where you get a cold spot such as windows (are they north facing?) then the humidity will cause condensation. Whilst the kitchen and bathroom will be generating more humidity over the short period of cooking/showering, that will be offset by the ventilation - by contrast you are not ventilating during the time the washing is generating humidity. It might be as well to open some windows whilst drying the washing.

Having said that if the only place you are getting condensation is on say north facing windows then maybe you don't have a big problem, but its often harder to tell if condensation is forming invisibly on walls etc.

Try ventilating whilst you dry the washing and see if that improves the situation - obviously if vases and washing up water left around also worsens the problem try avoiding that while you experiment to see what helps.

Fire_Fox

Are your extractor fans powerful and are they definitely vented outside and not simply into the ceiling void? Have you tried opening the windows on a daily basis (except when it snows/ rains) and does that make any difference?

Jo*_2

I will definitely open the windows more often and see how that goes. Although i have tried opening them to get rid of the condensation but that never makes any difference. I'll give it a go though, thanks Fire Fox and WestonDave