Preventing Condensation Spreading Around Your Home
By Ruth MacEachern
Product Manager
Dec 19, 2024
Condensation is a common issue in many homes, particularly during colder months. It occurs when warm, moist air meets cooler surfaces, such as windows, walls, or ceilings, leading to the formation of water droplets.
If left unchecked, condensation can lead to damp patches forming where mould will grow, and which can damage the fabric of your home.
To prevent condensation from developing into a more serious problem for your home and potentially affecting the health of your family, there are steps you can take to reduce the humidity of the air in your home, and address cold spots where condensation is likely to form away from where you might expect it.
Where does water vapour in the air come from?
The air in your home will always carry some amount of water vapour, and the actual amount of moisture that can be carried is dependent on temperature. Warm air can carry a lot of moisture, but as it cools that moisture is released in the form of condensation. Water vapour is released by many activities including:
- Boiling water when cooking
- Baths and showers
- Drying clothes indoors on radiators or in a tumble dryer
- Opening the oven during cooking
- Opening a dishwasher before it has time to cool
In addition to these, every time you breathe, you exhale a small amount of water vapour which you can see as a cloud of steam on cold days.
This water vapour builds up over the course of the day, and while the house is warm, you may not notice it, however during the night, as temperatures go down, it will start to be released, and this is the reason why you will often see droplets of water on your windows in the morning.
Reducing humidity in your home
If you have a problem with humidity, there are some steps you can take to reduce the amount of water vapour being released into the air:
- Using lids when cooking on the hob
- Starting to fill the bath with cold water and then topping up with hot rather than the other way around
- Keeping the bathroom door closed while you shower
- Leaving the dishwasher to cool before opening
- Drying clothes outdoors and not putting towels on the radiators
These actions will all help to lower humidity levels, but ventilation is much more effective. Opening windows to allow air to circulate in your home will help to stop condensation, but this is not always practical – especially during winter – and can also cause the water vapour to spread into rooms away from the source of the moisture where it may lead to more damp patches forming out of sight.
Modern extractor fans in your kitchen and bathrooms are essential in reducing condensation. Models such as the EnviroVent Cyclone 8 use a humidity sensor to adjust their power levels and remove saturated air from your home quickly and effectively and stop that water vapour escaping into other rooms.
Whole house ventilation systems such as EnviroVent ATMOS work in a different way to prevent condensation in your home. Positive Input Ventilation (PIV) works by drawing filtered air in through a central unit in your loft and then gently dispersing it through the home. This air displaces the humid air and improves air circulation. Better circulating air means that your home heats more evenly, which gets rid of cold spots where condensation is more likely to form. PIV systems also improve indoor air quality by filtering incoming air to remove particles such as pollen and mould spores that can cause allergic reactions.
Stop condensation in your home today
Enter your postcode below to book a free home survey from a local specialist. They can visit your house and will identify the causes of condensation, damp, and mould to provide you with advice about the best solution to stop condensation.
