Is it worth buying a new energy efficient cooker?

casper_gutman

Does the extractor hood in the kitchen actually extract to the outside of the house, or just filter the air and recirculate it back into the the house? The last three houses I've lived in have had hoods which were installed to recirculate and not extract - which in two cases seems to have just been down to laziness as they were screwed directly to exterior walls.

Also, does the extractor over the shower suck in much air? You can't always tell by the amount of noise it makes: it might be noisy because the bearing's failing, or because it's unbalanced by a build-up of dust on the fan, or because it's working really hard due to the duct being obstructed! You could try seeing if the extractor suction is sufficient to hold up a sheet of paper placed over the vent, to get some idea of whether it's working effectively.

Eldi_Dos

• @clanger66.    When local and housing authorities renovate estates one of the most common improvements is to instal a extractor fan controlled by a humidistat. These can run for several weeks before the desired level of humidity is achieved then just operate the fan when needed. In our previous property we had a gas hob and now have a induction hob,the difference in humidity levels was an eye opener for me. Like you we use a dehumidifier in the winter, the one we use is a compressor type and running costs do not seem too high. One way to demonstrate the benefits of reducing humidity is to get two tea towels one bone dry and one damp and put one on each knee and sit for five minutes then check difference in temperature, of each knee,that shows difference between trying to heat a dry house and a house with high humidity.

goldfinches

clanger66 said:

goldfinches said:

clanger66 said:

So as soon as we get up in the morning the windows are open. and of course, in summer clothes are dried outside. we have a shower which does make a lot of steam but it has an extractor fan fitted and we have a window in the bathroom although I seem to be the only one who showers with the window open! Teenagers often forget this stuff . One of the bedrooms does not have window at all just a French door and so this is difficult to vent at night, I am looking at having a vent put in the wooden frame. The extractor for the bathroom shower is not great to be honest but must do something I guess, it was replaced a few years ago. I think that the fact that the house has double glazing and concrete floors is probably to blame as like I said it is only three showers at day.

Hi clanger66, I would not have thought that three showers a day would create such an overwhelming problem as you described in your original post. Looking back at your previous messages I can see you've done the sensible thing of going round the house switching everything off as well. 

Is it possible for you to take some exterior and interior photos of your house for the expert damp commenters such as Doozer girl and FreeBear to have a look at to see if they can spot anything on those? Very often people post questions about damp on here with photos and get lots of helpful advice on how to solve the problem, here's an example of the kind of thing I mean. Rising Damp — MoneySavingExpert Forum

I'm suggesting this course as I'm otherwise stumped for helpful suggestions to make but if this isn't something you feel comfortable doing ignore me and keep posting for others to chime in. 

Hi, there is not so much to see, a bit of black mould here and there but it is more the smell of mould if the dehumidifier is not used. We had cavity wall insulation done a few years back and it seemed to make things worse condensation wise. But thank you for the link I will definitely take a look at that. We had a "damp expert" come in and he said it was condensation and recommended putting external vent bricks in the outside wall, I then read up about this and people were saying it made it worse. So we never got round to it as we were not sure if it was the right thing to do. The mould is worse in the colder side of the house

This seems to me to be a possible cause of your problem. Essentially, the reason that I suggested you taking photos and posting them on here was so that we could all have a look to see if you had an obvious source of damp e.g. breached dpc, overflowing gutter etc.
I'm now beginning to suspect that your cavity wall insulation was not done properly as in my experience it should reduce condensation not increase it.
I particularly winced at your having an "expert" who remarked on the condensation but did not otherwise help.

I do think it would be a great help to you for others on here to be able to see both the exterior and the interior of your home so that they can give real expert advice on what to do and how to go about it and in particular how much it should cost. 
The other information that might give some clues are the humidity readings for the air in your house and its temperature as well as the temperature of the exterior walls.
Are you able to collect together that information and post it up on here?