High humidity

Pingu1

Hey, I'm having trouble with high humidity in my ground floor studio flat (88%) and am not sure what the best way to solve it is? I thought of a getting a Heat Sava from Envirovent as this would extract the moisture and replace it with fresh air from outside, heating it in the process. Unfortunately I live next to a sewage works, so it will filter in the smell too. What other options do I have? This is for the main studio room/kitchen - I am buying a humidistat fan for the bathroom which is equally damp. My budget is somewhat limited, especially I have to spend £300 on radiators, as there is no central heating. Opening the windows doesn't really achieve much, hence me looking at fans.

Thank you for any feedback.

WestonDave

Firstly I would wait until the heating is sorted and see what levels you get - relative humidity is a function of both water content and temperature. Take your current 88% humidity air and heat it up 5C should see it drop to around 65%.


Secondly if you use an extractor fan, its going to be drawing air out of the house which will be replaced by air coming in from outside in some form (otherwise your flat would implode!). So the smell from the sewage works may not be such an issue. In fact having it come in via one controlled location (rather than loads of different draughts) may mean you can stick an air freshener block next to that so that it is immediately dealt with.


However I'd also consider the option of a dehumidifier - relatively cheap to run, and will deal with the main problem (humidity) as well as having drier air which is easier to heat.

Pingu1

Thanks for the response. I left my dehumidifier on all day at half power and it collects a lot of water, however it never clicked off with humidity set at 70-60%. Its cost me a lot in electricity too, so its not cheaper at all.

sniggings

Pingu1 wrote: »

Thanks for the response. I left my dehumidifier on all day at half power and it collects a lot of water, however it never clicked off with humidity set at 70-60%. Its cost me a lot in electricity too, so its not cheaper at all.

as said above, warmer air/rooms will see the humidity come down, so the problem is not as bad as you think.

Dehumidifiers are fairly cheap to run, you either need one or fix the problem in the flat if there is a problem to fix, or use less water in the form of showers, washing, breathing etc, if you do need one, no point having it on half power and complaining it's not working, turn it on full, check the label on yours, chances are it's less than 300watts, to run a 300watt dehumidifier for 10 hours a day for 30 days using an average of 15p a unit of electric will cost £13.50, if your dehumidifier is less than 300watts or your electric is less than15p a unit or you run it less than 10 hours a day or less than full power, it will cost you even less than £13.50. Seems cheap to me