condensation in kitchen, black mould and all that stuff

I never suggested you did. ;-)

Do they 'leak' condensation? I think I've been round friends that have them and they seem to?

It may have helped but not been a big enough contributor?

Quite common situation these days. Often people can't afford to 'waste' the heating though vents, airbricks and extractors ... nor run a tumble dryer and so all the cooking (and breathing) and clothes drying moisture has nowhere to go.

Our daughter lives in a rented flat and has no (secure) outdoor clothes drying space. So I leant her our middle sized dehumidifier and she leaves that and two clothes drying racks in her bedroom and shuts the door (when going out). She says it works a treat. ;-)

Our house has no central heating but does have solid 9" brick walls. I believe the walls 'breathe' and so some of the moisture in here goes out that way. We have a smaller dehumidifier in our bedroom and will put that on now and again if we start to see any condensation on the windows.

Modern well insulated is good, but only if the ventilation is to spec.

;-)

The shame is that there is no reason you wouldn't actually benefit from cavity wall insulation as if the internal walls stay warmer, they won't gather so much condensation.

No, the key here is to do what you have done now and ensure there is adequate moisture extraction.

It's no different to having a waterproof coat. There is little more waterproof than the old Pakamac, as long as you aren't exerting yourself in it. That's why all good waterproof clothing is 'breathable' or has vents to keep the rain out but let the moist air out.

Something I've mentioned before is that I'm surprised more new builds don't have heat exchangers (HRV or MVHR) fitted as std?

Cheers, T i m

But a dehumidifier is always temporary. It works only when on and only in one room . Since condensation and mould tend to move through the house in time ( at least thats my experience) its better to find a permanent solution.

This one works. It doesnt cost much ( especially so compared to the cost of running a dehumidifier all the time) and its a lot less noisey than a dehumidifier.

I do not have the heating unit ( which is attached to the model I got) on and it works without. You could save £200 if you got an unheated one.

But it?s working for her. It?s a pragmatic solution to a long standing problem. Be happier for her.

Tim

Why is it?

I appreciate why some might see them as that as they are often brought in to speed up the drying process after floods and the like. Ours are 'permanent in their location and usage, even if they are 'portable' as such. Our aircon unit is also described as 'portable' and it can be moved on it's wheels in use, it's just the hole in the wall and the unit outside means it's not *that* portable. ;-)

True ... but most have humidistat and so are only on when required.

True. However, if you deal with the worst at source, it shouldn't migrate so much (assisted by warmer walls with cavity insulation).

Circumstances permitting.

Understood.

What does the 'heating' do? Heat the air (to compensate for any heat lost) or stop water condensing in the unit?

Cheers, T i m

no more or less than PIV

heh

not so

nonsequitur, and neither PIV nor dehumidifier lasts forever.

what was the calculated cost of you throwing out all that heated air all winter?

some of which are silent

how is it possible to save £200 on a small fan? They don't cost that much.

NT

The Natural Philosopher pretended :

The air outdoors often reaches 100% humidity, so indiscriminate sucking of that into a home might not help. It is always best to extract the moist air at source to the outdoors.

You forget that outside air is almost never 100% humidity AND warm.

So once in the house its a lot less humid as it warms up. Only in a sultry summer will air from outside be 100% humid inside as well.

Summer in Durban requires aircon to dehumidify. But seldom in the UK :-)

The Natural Philosopher formulated the question :

You still cannot beat removing moist air in a home, at the sources of moisture.

"Harry Bloomfield"; "Esq." snipped-for-privacy@NOSPAM.tiscali.co.uk> wrote in message news:r2h3ac$mbm$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me...

Yes, but its so easy to discriminate.

But that has to be replaced with air from somewhere so its not necessarily better in that regard.

The main advantage is that the moist air doesn't get around the rest of the house first.

jon lopgel used his keyboard to write :

Agreed, but most homes are generally leaky.

That is a really massive advantage. I have absolutely no damp in my home at all, because I have redesigned in, proper extraction at all points where moisture is generated and banned the drying of clothes anywhere in the main house.

"Harry Bloomfield"; "Esq." snipped-for-privacy@NOSPAM.tiscali.co.uk> wrote in message news:r2hnh7$mn7$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me...

But you are stuck with whatever the outside air humidity is. With that other system, it can be selective and only move the moist air out of the house when the outside air is less moist.

I have no damp in mine either and never get any condensation on the single glazed windows when cooking and don't use the exhaust fan when cooking. I only use it when grilling steaks because I do those stinking hot on one of those cast iron grill plates and get a lot of smoke when doing that when the fat catches fire.

I don't have an exhaust fan in the shower room and only get a bit of condensation on the big mirror from the steam from the shower which doesn't last long.

Could you tell me how well it works with "hidden" mould growth? By that I mean the mould that grows on walls behind cupboards, wardrobes, etc, on the backs of those wardrobes, and even inside the wardrobes, drawers, and anything enclosed.

We have used a dehumidifier, and that helps, but (as has been pointed out in this thread), only as long as it is on and used regularly. The hidden mould we have found is not black, but blue (maybe a penicillium?), and will appear on the strangest surfaces, even some plastic ones, but it most certainly has a predilection for leather - belts, handbags, shoes, etc.

I find that difficult to believe, because I have double have good DG and even so I can get a tiny amount at the lower edge of the panes if I forget to turn the hob extract on, when doing serious cooking.

Before I sorted this place out with insulation and DG, it was single glazed, very leaky, fixed vents and suffered lots of condensation. In winter ice would sometimes appear on the inside of the glass when it was really cold. Internal RH is always between 40 and 50%.

Jeff Layman submitted this idea :

Your moisture must be from somewhere and its source/cause needs to be found. I have lots of cupboards, drawers and wardrobe space - none of which suffer such problems. I have an especially large built in wardrobe, occupying a full wall (maybe 16' wide) which I built 30 years ago and is packed with clothes, never any problems there. It is back-less, just a papered, plastered, cavity party wall behind it and all 6x doors are usually kept closed.

No it's not. Our bedrooms are downstairs and on the side of a hill so there's no way of getting effective "through" ventilation so I have a dehumidifier set to easy/auto which takes ambient temperature and maintains a corresponding humidity level.

Also not true, humidity will "balance" to all connected areas, rooms so leaving doors open or a-jar allows dehumidifier to extract moisture from everywhere.

I can't believe that after all these years you still haven't realised the moisture from your cooking needs extracting at source, same with bathroom. A dehumidifier will remove basic ambient moisture but if you're steaming litres of water into the house on a daily basis it's absolutely going to condense on the cold walls and mould will inevitably appear.

A dehumidifier with an operational humidistat doesn't run all the time, only when required, when humidity reaches a state that provides conditions for mould to grow, if you're removing moisture at source it should rarely come on.

And when the external humidity rises in spring and autumn you're simply pumping a HIGHER moisture content into your house amplifying the problem.

Hey-ho... Nothing ever changes if nothing changes.

Most likely the difference is with how I cook. I never boil anything anymore except when making marmalade and relish and those arent done in winter because the limes I use for the marmalade arent available in winter because I use the locally grown limes.

The frozen peas and corn and capsicum that is my normal veg with the main meal is done in the microwave in a glass cup and you don't even get any steam from the microwave.

The potato is mostly roasted in the digital air fryer after being dipped in olive oil after being peeled. With steak and chops and stuff like that the potato is done in the microwave with no water at all, microwaved in its jacket. No steam with that either. Rice too, that's done in the microwave and while there is some water added to the uncooked rice in the hard plastic thing with a lid, that's absorbed by the rice, there is no water left when the rice is ready to plate. But I normally put the curry in that hard plastic thing and eat it from there with a splayd instead of on a plate.

I don't measure mine but that's pretty typical outside in winter here,

The prat is in australia, hot & dry. He uses pseudonyms prolifically to try to get past the filters almost everyone sets for his junk.