Condensation Problem- HELP

[JDub]

I have a four beddie house with ducted gas heating. I have an issue with condensation on the walls and roof in one bedroom in particular, the furthest from the main living area.

Basically as with most ducted gas heating systems you can isolate zones of the house so you dont waste heat. So half of my house i close off as the rooms are rarely used and therefore dont get heated.

When I do this and we have a cold night.... always ATM living in Canberra, the condensation of the roof and walls is unbelievable..... running down in streams and pooling beneth the window. It is destroying the paintwork and perhaps causing longer term damage.

The rooms only have thin cheap curtins so dont insulate at all, could this be the problem?

There is no source of moisture in this room and the only way to stop the problem is to open the house up and heat every room in it (which is costing a fortune).... any ideas?

Can I do anything to prevent this?
Help please:(

[jackiew]

first off suggest you do a search from www.google.co.uk rather than using the australian one ... you're much more likely to find suitable info there for dealing with cold climates.

http://www.diydoctor.org.uk/condensationproject/condensation.htm

normally if you get condensation on windows when the temperature inside the room is quite a bit higher than that outside .. which as you're not heating the rooms in question might indicate that the problem is a heat differential between the internal wall between the heated and unheated area. I'm currently living in a house in Melbourne which has only got heating in the lounge and I'm not having any problems in the unheated rooms.

It would also ( to me at least ) indicate that you might have a general problem with damp in that particular room - leaking roof ... rising damp etc Are you drying washing in there ?

Having grown up in a UK house with no heating in the bedrooms just people's breathing in the room is enough to cause condesation on the bedroom windows ( this is how, if you're a burglar you tell which rooms have people sleeping in them :-) )

lined curtains and pelmets will help reduce condensation on the glass but it sounds like that isn't the only solution to your problem.

[JDub]

We dont dry washing in that room but we do in the other parts of the house.

We also have an 800L fishtank that looses a fair bit through evaporation each day but again this is the main living area and nowhere near the room in question. We have no probs with condensation in the rooms where we dry washing or have the tank.....

Do you think opening the windows during the day would help the humidity in the house?:(

BTW If your interested this is my tank......:)

www.angelfire.com/falcon/joelwillis (http://www.angelfire.com/falcon/joelwillis)

[JDub]

BTW thanks heaps for that link jackiew..... helps alot..... I hope.

[Trav]

JDub

Mate, I'm in canberra too and I also have ducted gas. We have no problems at all with condensation in our place. If anything, our house gets very dry (like airconditioned places - wake up in the morning witha dry mouth that tastes like I've licked the road for about 2 hours while sleeping).

We don't bother closing off areas of the house - we just heat everything except the laundry where there is no vent. But even the laundry where we dry clothes and there is a washing machine etc doesn't get moist.

We do have good curtains and ceiling insulation if that makes any difference.

Check that your heater vents aren't blowing up the window side of the curtain. Many heater installers put the vents in front of windows so that they dont get in the way of furniture. This means that the hot air runs up the side of the window causing the temperature differential mentioned above. If this is the case, go to Bunnies and pick up a stack fo the air deflectors (clear plastic things that turn the air 90 degrees so that it runs across the floor not up the wall/window).

I also suggest you try and open all the vents in each room and see if that makes a difference. It could be the temperature differential between the heated and non-heated areas?!?

Also, have you checked to see if the vents below your floor are working properly? If you don't ahve any sub-floor ventilation for a house on joists and bearers, you can have real problems. Get under there and see if it is wet. It should be pretty dry (and very dusty!).

Report back to us if this helps!

Trav

[Trav]

A couple more ideas...

You could also try and put a vent in the roof above your fishtank - and see if that will help the moisture levels. But you might need to check how moist your roof cavity gets. Perhaps a whirly thingo could assist if it is damp in the roof too.

One last idea - have you tried checking the moisture in each room at different times of day/year? This could narrow down if you have a moisture problems etc.

Trav

[jackiew]

by the way it is very easy to make loose linings for existing curtains which don't have them ... if you were in the UK you could just buy them but haven't seen them here.

If you can cut straight, use a tape measure and sew a straight line on a sewing machine you're away ....

so don't run out and buy new curtains with linings ( unless of course you have money to burn )

[JDub]

Thanks for the replies Trav,



The ducts (and system) are actually in the roof, not in the sub floor. Incidently we have plenty of sub floor ventilation.

I think my problem is lack of ventilation in the main areas of the house during winter. ie the windows and doors remain closed 24/7. This is conjuction with the 5L a day evaporation from my fishtank and the lack of a decent exhaust fan in the bathroom lead to a build up of humidity... sound logical?

I will look into installing some exhaust fans in the bathroom (I need to get a sparky to wire it up dont I? :( ) and perhaps leave some of the windows in the unheated part of the house open and see if that helps. And as you say if I need to I may put an exhaust fan above my tank.

I will check my roof cavity but I already have a "whirly thingo" ;)

[JDub]

by the way it is very easy to make loose linings for existing curtains which don't have them ... if you were in the UK you could just buy them but haven't seen them here.


never thought of doing that.... sounds easy, will look into it but as you said I dont think that is my main problem.

[Trav]

Most exhaust fans simply plug in with a normal 3 pin plug. But unless you have a powerpoiint in the roof, you will need a sparky.

You are probably right - the lack of ventilation and the evap from the tank probably do it. You don't necessarily need an exhaust fan above your tank - try a few fixed plastic vents - you can buy then for about 10 bucks at bunnies and install them yourself.

Trav

[jackiew]

I take it you've got one of these already on your tank?

http://www.fishtanksandponds.com/equipment/condensationtrays.htm

not that I know squat about keeping fish ( i once looked after a friend's tank for 24 hours and she came back to dead fish ... she didn't close the curtains before she went and I didn't know enough to think to do it - i think they cooked :o ).

[gemi_babe]

I once rented a unit with a gas heater - not ducted and the condensation was terrible. It was so bad that previous painted over MOLD (lazy landlords) was growing thru the paint on the ceiling and not realising at the time, was making me sick.

Airing out the room during the day for an hour made alot of difference.

The problem was that the unit was shaded for most of the day by a huge gum tree. It wasn't allowing what little sunlight or even filtered sun light thru the clouds to reach the roof.

So before heading out to spend $$$ on trying to ventilate, you might want to check how much sun the room is actually getting thru out the day.

:) Gemi