Bedroom Heating/Humidity Problem Help Please

southernguy_2

Hi

Try to keep this short

I moved into a new flat last summer

Ever since then i have been waking up in the morning with avery dry mouth, lips and a blocked nose(no nice way of putting it really but crusty snot on the inside of my nose) that s the horrible bit out of the way

The bedroom for some reason even when the central heating is on seems to struggle to keep heat.

I have recently turned the radiator in the bedroom off so the air was not so dry.

Its a ground floor flat so i dont feel comfortable leaving the window open at night as there are no stays or locking positions (why on the ground floor they didnt fit a top opener god only knows)

What are my options here

Is it too little humidity or too much?

The bedroom is like an icebox at the moment but i can only imagine it would be worse with the heating on

Thanks

whitelillies

It sounds like theres a lack of air flow in the room. Can you not get trickle vents fitted or leave the bedroom door open with another window open on a catch in another room so that air flows throught the flat?

WestonDave

The dry mouth and blocked nose are connected - if you can't breathe through your nose, you breathe through your mouth which takes all the moisture out of it.

So its likely something is causing the blocked nose, and the mouth is a side effect of that.

My instinct is that your room is too cold and therefore probably too humid, which may be enough on its own to cause your nose to bung up, or the damp maybe triggering mould spores which are doing it as an immune reaction. The place to check the medical side out is the doctors so lets focus on trying to test out whether changing the "climate" in your room can help.

I would personally look on the weather forecast for the next dry spell (high pressure) even if its going to be really cold. Meanwhile beg, borrow or buy some kind of supplementary heating for your room. When the appropriate weather comes round have a day in the house with the windows wide open and the heating on (yes I know wasteful but this is just to test). What you should get is air from outside with a lower moisture content coming into the house, and helping to properly dry the room out from all the moisture generated through cooking, bathing, sweating, and breathing. As you warm that cold dry air from outside, its relative humidity will drop even further, so you end up with a dry warm bedroom instead of a cold damp one. Try sleeping in that - preferably with the window slightly ajar if you can rig it (even if you get some rope and tie it to something for peace of mind) and see if you wake up better. If that helps then you need to address ventilation (see if a window company can add some vents etc to the windows) and heating - maybe tune the system or get a bigger radiator in your room.

I know with the dry mouth, drying the room seems counter intuitive, but I really think its cold/damp bunging your nose up which in turn is causing the dry mouth, rather than the other way around.

whitelillies

when i moved to where i am now my rooms were damp too. I found that putting the heating on still didnt heat up the room, so i bought a dehumidifier and ran this to dry out the damp in the room, when i wasnt sleeping in the room. The heating in the room on its own was just making the rooms more damp, wet and the walls and windows were cold. Ive solved the problem now by venting the rooms and having the heating on low some days and i find that even with the heating off if the window is slightly open i dont get anymore damp humid air.

southernguy_2

Thanks for the replies

So confusing

Just found the following and the symtoms look more like too little humidity

Suppose the only real way to find out is purchase a Hygrometer and measure the humidity

Too little humidity Typical symptoms
Chapped skin and lips
Scratchy nose and throat
Breathing problems
Static and sparks
Problems with electronic equipment

southernguy_2

An update

I purchased a Hygrometer and placed it in the room for a period of two hours

Its showing

Temp 13.5 c
Humdity 50%

Is this normal? obviously the temp is low as the rad is switched off in that room

Swipe

50% sounds perfect to me

whitelillies

Hi, may i ask where did you get the hygrometer from and how much was it. I could really do with one as when i run my dehumidifier it never switches itself off on the normal setting, it continually runs until the buckets full. Other people on other threads say that theres switches itself off when the humidity it right. My flat is in a damp corner, with surrounding 10ft hedging and a north facing wall running along it. My windows are huge as well so i expect that doesnt help either

southernguy_2

i bought it from Kiddicare was £15

i may be open to an offer as i only bought it for that one purpose

Ive no kids so it will be of no use to me

only two hours use lol

gmgmgm

Hygrometers are notoriously inaccurate, unless they are expensive ones and calibrated properly.
Having said that, the symptoms you describe could be caused by dry air.

For a couple of days try putting the heating on slightly higher and put a large bucket of water in the room so there's at least some water evaporating into the air.

southernguy_2

I have now moved it into the lounge for a comparison
never have any problems in there
It now reads

temp 21 c
rh 39%

On reading some other threads on here perhaps i shoul stop drying the washing in there. now and again leave the door open and more importantly once in a while open the bloody windows

just dont think of it at the time:o