There are no trickle vents in the uPVC window in my bedroom. 2.5m wide x about 1.2m high. Consequently, on winter mornings, there is a lot of condensation on the windows. This is due to water vapour exhaled during sleeping. It's amazing how much there is -- I have to sponge the windows down and then leave the casement open during the day.
I am thinking of fitting one or two white plastic trickle vents. I presume it is just a matter of drilling a few small holes through the frame? Any suppliers on line or in the high street? Wickes have some trickle vents but they are for wooden windows, as far as I can see.
Anyone done this? Is it a DIY job or best left to someone who installs uPVC windows?
================== Check the locks to see if the windows can be locked in a partly open position (about 1/4"). This appears to be the modern way of providing trickle venting.
In message , bruce snipped-for-privacy@my-deja.com writes
I'm not convinced it's exhaled water vapour. We never had significant condensation in out last house on the UPVC DG windows.
Do you have decent ventilation to the bathroom and the kitchen, where most vapour originates? We had a humidistat controlled extractor in the bathroom and a normal cooker hood type thing in the kitchen
Bathroom -- I always open the window and wipe down tiles after a bath. Kitchen -- I open the door and/or window if there is any steam.
All internal doors are closed at night. So I think it must be exhaled water vapour. Radiator is under bedroom window, but CH is switched off an hour before bedtime.
Looks like drilling into the window is not recommended, then....
Well.... We have the same problem. My brother out-law is a window fitter and sent half a dozen trickle vents to us. Didn't say it would present any problems, and the vents on our UPVC patio doors in the bedroom are fitted to the top of the door part rather than the frame part.
This is where I am going to put ours, as and when I can get round to it. Looking around other houses in the area, they are all fitted to the "window" rather than the frame.
Though, I couldn't find any source of the vents anywhere. Perhaps if you have a local UPVC company they would be able to sell you (or give you) some. (You could try bluffing them with the fact you may be wanting to change half a dozen windows later in the year to get a freebie)
The vents in your patio door were probably fitted in the factory, so the reinforcement would be cut before insertion.
A retro-fit into the top of a side-hung opening sash might be OK because it is unlikely to wide enough to require reinforcement. A profile less than 60mm could be too slim for the vent. A (well made) top-hung sash more than 750mm wide will have steel in the top.
It is indeed. However the BCO will tell you that leaving windows open is a security risk, and insist on some form of thiefproof ventilation at ground floor level, and probably above it too.,
You don't have a ventilation problem; you have a reverse chimney-effect problem.
I had the same thing with my patio door, a metal-framed one installed circa 30 years ago. Moisture would condense on the frame, and on the lower part of the glass, eventually leaving small patches of mould on some of the hardwood frame. It took me a little while to work out what was happening.
I traced the problem to a 'reverse chimney' effect due to the curtains being closed. There was circa a 1" gap between the top of the curtains and the ceiling, and similar one at the bottom.
As air trapped by the curtains cooled, it sank and emerged into the dining area, to be replaced by warm moist air at the top. There comes a point somewhere near but not at the bottom of the glass where the temperature falls below the dew-point, and moisture condenses out. This continues ad infinitum, drawing moisture from the room and depositing it on the glass and frame. The colder the night, the farther up the glass the condensation started.
Putting 'sammy snakes' (draught excluders) along the bottom of the curtains stopped the problem completely. Although cutting off the flow of air made the glass colder, the very limited airflow meant that condensed vapour could not be replaced, and the problem has gone away. The dining area is also a lot warmer!
I put a wireless thermometer between the curtains and the glass. With no draught excluder in place, the temperature drop from ambient was about 5 degC or so. With the sammy snakes in place, the thermometer read just above the outside temperature, a drop on the night in question of over 20 degC.
My suggestions: make sure that obvious sources of dampness are removed from the rooms concerned and cut the air-flow off with draught-excluders.
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