Preventing damp and condensation

Isoei

I moved into my first flat earlier this year. It's a two-bed top floor flat, and is heated by electric convector wall panels only.

With this being my first place and my first winter looking after it, I want to make sure I'm not doing some massive no-no by keeping my heating off. As you can imagine, electric-only is not particularly cheap, and so far I've only felt the need have the radiators on in one room at a time while I've been in them, for an hour or two at most (and OCD prevents me from leaving them unsupervised or on for very long anyway!)

However, I'm also aware that not warming the place properly leads to condensation. When I use the shower I keep the door closed and put the radiator on in the bathroom to reduce it as much as possible, and I don't cook large meals so I'm not generating much steam in the kitchen. I can only dry my laundry indoors, unfortunately. 

I ask this more for peace of mind, and that keeping the place fairly cold won't lead to issues with mould and damp. I've seen advice regarding dehumidifiers where needed, but wondered if there were any other tricks to keeping condensation at bay that I might have missed!

Advice is appreciated

CliveOfIndia

Ventilation, in a nutshell.

Isoei said:

When I use the shower I keep the door closed and put the radiator on in the bathroom to reduce it as much as possible

That won't actually do much good, to be honest.  The basic physics is that warm air can hold more moisture than cold air.  So putting the radiator on will warm the air, meaning it can hold more moisture, and will reduce the amount of apparent steam.  But as soon as the air cools (often most noticeable where it comes into contact with a cold wall or window), the moisture will condense out.  You need to actually get rid of the moist air - either by opening a window or switching on an extractor fan.

Isoei said:

I've seen advice regarding dehumidifiers where needed

A dehumidifier will help - though do remember, it consumes electricity whilst running, so you need to balance the cost of running that against the cost of heating.

But the most important thing is to get rid of the moist air.  Whether that's by using a dehumidifier or just opening a window makes little difference.

Isoei said:

I can only dry my laundry indoors, unfortunately.

Remember that drying laundry indoors will put more moisture into the air.  If you really can't dry it outdoors then do at least make sure the room is well-ventilated (do you see a theme developing here? )

Albermarle

In Winter, there is a trade off between draughtproofing a home ( to keep warm) and having adequate ventilation to stop problems with mould etc. Some houses/flats seem to have more problems than others in this respect, so probably best just to keep an eye out for any problems in your first year in the flat. With a bit of luck there will not be any issues anyway.

 I've seen advice regarding dehumidifiers where needed

Although I guess they can be useful in some situations, I think there is a bit of 'flavour of the month' about humidifiers at the moment. A bit like air fryers last year. If one was cynical you might think some of the positive advice was just to sell more of them ! As said above opening a window is just as good and cheaper.


As you can imagine, electric-only is not particularly cheap, and so far I've only felt the need have the radiators on in one room at a time while I've been in them, for an hour or two at most

Clearly electric convector heaters are not the most economical way to heat a home, but now the weather is getting more cold, you do not want to be sat there shivering for the sake of a few quid a week. Probably best to leave them on longer but turn the thermostats on them down a bit.

Eldi_Dos

With it being a top floor flat, what insulation is there in the roofspace, insulating this is one of the most cost effective ways to make a top floor flat comfortable. Winter and summer.
Get yourself a minimum maximum thermometer and check what the temperature range is in your flat.
If you have extractor fans use them as much as possible when drying clothes or get a dehumidifier for winter use.

ThisIsWeird

Isoei said:

...I've only felt the need have the radiators on in one room at a time while I've been in them, for an hour or two at most (and OCD prevents me from leaving them unsupervised or on for very long anyway!)

As Clive says.

Any room that you are not occupying, crack open the windows to 'vent'.

When you leave a room and turn down the rad, crack open the windows.

When you have a shower, have the extractor running and rad on - so you feel comfy - but turn the rad off when you finish, close the door, and leave the extractor on for a good 20+ minutes - until you know the room has no condensation of any surface.

When you go to bed, have the bedroom rad on for a half-hour beforehand so's it's nice, then turn it off, open the windows to 'vent', and run for the covers. You should NOT be cold during the night - it's why gawd gave us duvets.

If your rad is on a timer, have it set to come on a half-hour before you get up, close the windows until you are done with the bedroom, turn the rad off, and open the windows to vent again during the day.

When you cook, have the extractor running.

When you dry your clothes, if it's in the sitting room, then heating off overnight, and windows nicely open. If it's in a spare room, then windows WIDE open, and shut the door!

markin

A dehumidifier means no need to leave windows open letting all the heat out, what they cost in power to run will save in heating cost.

Nebbit

I agree that a dehumidifier is more practical than just opening the window, because if you open the windows the room can become unbearably cold. However a dehumidifier that is not emptied daily is counter productive

ThisIsWeird

I wouldn't recommend opening the windows in a room you are sitting in

Swipe

I won't be opening any windows today after the farmer has been muck spreading in the field behind.

CurlySue2017

Isoei said:

I moved into my first flat earlier this year. It's a two-bed top floor flat, and is heated by electric convector wall panels only.

With this being my first place and my first winter looking after it, I want to make sure I'm not doing some massive no-no by keeping my heating off. As you can imagine, electric-only is not particularly cheap, and so far I've only felt the need have the radiators on in one room at a time while I've been in them, for an hour or two at most (and OCD prevents me from leaving them unsupervised or on for very long anyway!)

However, I'm also aware that not warming the place properly leads to condensation. When I use the shower I keep the door closed and put the radiator on in the bathroom to reduce it as much as possible, and I don't cook large meals so I'm not generating much steam in the kitchen. I can only dry my laundry indoors, unfortunately. 

I ask this more for peace of mind, and that keeping the place fairly cold won't lead to issues with mould and damp. I've seen advice regarding dehumidifiers where needed, but wondered if there were any other tricks to keeping condensation at bay that I might have missed!

Advice is appreciated

I live in a very similar property to you by the way you describe it - two bed flat, electric only, panel heaters - except I am on the ground floor.
Ventilation is all well and good, but you don't want your windows open when it's this cold outside and personally, I find it doesn't actually help that much when the air outside is so cold!  There's actually condensation on the outside of the windows so that theory is, in my opinion, questionable.

My suggestions would be:
Make sure the trickle vents on the windows are open and leave them open.
Use extractors wherever possible and leave them running after you have finished, so say ten or fifteen minutes after taking a shower, the same after cooking. 
I use a dehumidifier when drying washing indoors - left in the same room as the drying, door closed, run overnight (we are on Economy 7 so cheaper overnight).  The dehumidifier also kicks out a bit of heat itself, so that takes the edge off the cold.

There is some condensation of course, but a quick daily wipe of all windows with a squeegee gets rid of it and we don't get any mould.

GrubbyGirl_2

Many many years ago when I lived in a house that was especially damp in the bathroom I found that using a squeegee (like you do the windows with) to go over all the tiles and shower screens and the shower tray itself to push as much water down the plughole as possible made a huge difference to the amount humidity in the bathroom after using it. we also made sure the toilet seat was always down.  The theory being to reduce the amount of water in the bathroom reduces the amount that can evaporate.  It improved things for us so might be worth a try