The cold, wintery weather often tempts homeowners to try and preserve as much heat as possible inside their homes, which means that moisture-laden air produced by everyday activities has nowhere to escape to, with windows and doors (understandably) remaining closed.
Unfortunately, due to the large difference in temperature between the cold exterior and warm interior of your home, houses are much more prone to condensation and damp in the colder months. However, there is a solution to keep you warm whilst preventing condensation from forming…but before we explain, it’s important to understand what causes condensation and why it’s a problem.
There are several different causes of damp and condensation in winter - with each of your efforts to keep your household warm likely contributing.
In order to preserve as much heat as possible, homeowners are a lot more likely to keep their windows and doors closed during the winter months. Unfortunately, this ensures that any moisture created throughout the day - such as from showering, washing, bathing or cooking - will remain trapped inside. As a result, the moisture in the air will then be able to condense and settle on surfaces.
People also tend to invest in draught excluders for the winter months to keep any chilly air from the outside that may slip through gaps and into the home. This also means that any interior humidity and moisture won’t be able to escape through these ‘plugged’ gaps, and will be confined to the building.
In winter, you’re much more likely to have your traditional heating systems on full blast, such as fires and radiators. Whilst it keeps your household warm, it also results in increased water vapour in the air, which can then condense onto cooler surfaces such as windows.
Although you may think that condensation is more of an annoying inconvenience to deal with, it can actually cause major problems to your home if you’re not careful.
If causes of damp and condensation are not addressed, it can cause substantial damage to properties and may even result in a hefty bill to replace any affected plasterwork, window frames and door frames. If allowed to damage wooden frames, the fibres within the wood can spread apart, allowing more moisture to soak in - which may then freeze, causing the wood to split.
Treating wood rot is not an easy task, and will often require a professional to carry out expensive remedial works. Condensation can also result in peeling paint and plaster, which again, is not easy to fix and can cause homeowners some serious problems - especially if you ever want to sell up and move home.
Damp and condensation also lead to mould and fungus, which can be a serious health risk.
Luckily for all homeowners, there IS a simple solution to staying warm, whilst also keeping moisture and humidity in your home to a minimum.
At Ventilation Megastore, we are experts in providing Mechanical Heat Recovery Ventilation (MVHR) for your home - allowing you to have access to fresh, filtered (and heated!) air.
An MVHR system will remove the moist, humid air from your home and replace it with fresh, filtered air from outside. Heat energy from the property is also recovered, and then transferred to the fresh incoming air via a heat exchanger - meaning that the fresh air is also heating your home too, which is vital in the colder months (and will save you money on those heating bills!).
By removing the moisture laden air from your house before it has a chance to settle, this will dramatically reduce any dampness and condensation from occurring, whilst allowing you to keep those windows and doors firmly shut.
Are you interested in investing in an energy-efficient MVHR unit? Get in touch with our team of experts today for a free consultation.
