If you aren’t already thinking about getting your home warm and healthy for winter, now’s the time to start.
The clocks have gone back, mornings are getting chillier and we’ve pulled out our thick winter duvets. If you aren’t already thinking about getting your home warm and healthy for winter, now’s the time to start.
The first step is tackling enemy number one — dampness. Every winter we hear and see stories of people living in extremely damp, mouldy conditions. It’s a symptom of living in older wooden houses in a temperate climate. But it isn’t just extreme cases that need to be fixed — most of us could improve comfort by reducing dampness in our homes.
A damp home is an unhealthy home, there’s no argument there. But it isn’t just that — damp air takes more energy to heat than dry air, so it literally pays to remove moisture from your home.
Musty smells, mouldy walls and ceilings, weeping windows and damp clothes in wardrobes are all signs you need to reduce moisture and increase ventilation.
Start by reducing dampness sources. Moisture gets into your home in many ways. One of the biggest sources is moisture seeping up from the ground through your floors. Check for dampness under your house and fix any drainage, guttering, downpipe or plumbing problems — then consider installing a sealed moisture control sheet.
Other daily activities can add moisture to your home:
Drying clothes inside can add 5L of moisture per load. Make use of good winter days to dry clothes outside. Using the fastest spin speed on your washing machine minimises the amount of drying needed. If you use a vented clothes dryer, ensure it vents outside.
Cooking can add up to 3L a day. Use pot lids when cooking to contain steam and a kitchen rangehood or fan that vents outside.
Showers and baths add up to 1.5L per day per person. Use an extractor fan when showering or taking a bath, or at least open a window. You can also fit a dome to your shower to contain moisture.
Don’t use unflued gas heaters to heat your home. Not only are they dangerous unless well vented, they add up to 1L of moisture to the air per hour.
Activity | Litres |
---|---|
Cooking | 3.0/day |
Clothes washing | 0.5/day |
Showers and baths | 1.5/day (per person) |
Dishes | 1.0/day |
Clothes drying (unvented) | 5.0/load |
Gas heater (unflued) | Up to 1.0/hr |
Breathing, Active | 0.2/hr per person |
Breathing, Asleep | 0.02/hr per person |
Perspiration | 0.03/hr per person |
Pot plants | As much as you give them |
Once the main sources of dampness are removed or reduced, you can think about ventilation. Just living and breathing adds moisture into the home, and we can’t stop doing that. But we can open windows to let a breeze through and vent moisture-laden air. It seems counter-intuitive to open windows on a cold winter day, but removing moisture will be healthier and make your heating more efficient. Get in the habit of airing your home every day or leaving windows slightly open.
Many of these tips are free or low-cost, but the simple changes can be highly effective. Further options start to get pricier.
You might consider a dehumidifier to target parts of the home that don’t get enough airflow and remain damp. Dehumidifiers aren’t a magic bullet — the best in our tests remove up to 6L per day at 12°C, but they won’t perform that well when it’s colder. However, they are effective at drying smaller spaces, and act as a small heater too, putting out about 300-400W of heat. But minimise the sources of moisture before you bring in the dehumidifiers.
Mould is known to cause inflammation, allergies and infections.
It is a relatively straightforward process to remove mould from hard non-porous surfaces such as glass or ceramic tile. Removing mould from porous substances such as wallboard, wood and carpets is more difficult and more hazardous. This is because spores can be released when disturbing rotten material and these can cause inflammation, allergies and infections.
In new buildings, some moisture is trapped during the construction process. Wet timber may also have been used. This will dry out eventually over the first year of the building’s life, as long as the house is properly heated, ventilated and insulated.
To prevent damp air from building up under the floor:
To prevent damp air from being drawn into your home through the floor:
Let moist air out and dry air in by:
Member comments
Get access to comment