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I think he admitted he only discovered this 2 weeks ago. He went on to admit it if you care to listen.. It is not rocket science. I worked abroad some years back in a global company and the scandinavians complained so much about the British winters when they were used to minus 20. It is the humidity level they do not expect when they see the temp in winter only tends to get to minus 5 or so and they were used to minus 25..
Purchased: August 2022 - still works GREAT! th-cam.com/users/postUgkxxsUnXhGsSJLim_XnMHyQK0u3XVaW-CGn I live in a studio and during the summer it gets scorching hot - really old building with no ac units. I can’t express how EASY it was to install.This unit has been a life savior during the summer and some days during other seasons where it can still be a bit warm at night. In this small place is my friend, a husky, poodle mix and myself. We need AC - lolI don’t use the dehumidifier option - I’m not sure if it will leak in my house, since I did not install the small draining hose that came with it. May look into it late but I don’t worry about much humidity in the apartment.I don’t understand why the negative reviews since all things mentioned, I personally did not find issues with. Definitely worth it!
Good to see someone who understands this problem. I worked in the damp proofing industry for around 10 years in in the 80's, and about a third of the calls I got to supposed 'rising damp' were actually condensation. One point I would make is this: the (NET) cost of running a dehumidifier really needs to take into account the heat released by the machine itself. This is the latent heat contained in the moisture. The heat (energy) that was used to evaporate the water in the first place is still there - contained in the moist air. The dehumidifier releases it. Therefore your central heating thermostat will stop calling for heat a little sooner than it would otherwise. Obviously no machine is 100% efficient, so it can't cancel out the electricity cost altogether. Ebac are a British made machine and that was my first choice, about five years ago. Sadly, the extraction rate plummeted after a year or so, despite buying new (expensive) filters. So we replaced it with a 10 litre Meaco model - and that has been great: still extracts a good 5 lires a night from late October onwards. It's rated at 150w but when I checked it out, actually uses only 122 w. It works out at just over a Kwh per night, which at the present cost, is just over 33p + vat.
How are you collecting 5 litres a night?? :O the humidity in my flat ranges between 55-80%, and even after drying laundry for 5/6 hours, I don't even half fill the tank of my Meaco (2 or 3 litre tank)
Been doing all this for years, had to as my house is an end house built in the 1920"s and is exposed. Learnt all this quickly and been running a dehumidifier for years, it saves a lot on the heating bills.
You forgot about most people using steam generators (Irons) some daily, huge amounts of moisture being emitted. Very informative contribution we just watched and subscribed to.
Good tips, Charlie. We have a victorian terrace in Bristol. The place was riddled with damp before we moved in. Everything the previous owner had done did exactly the opposite and increased damp. So we unplugged the air bricks. Removed plastic paint from Bath stone and brickwork. Sorted and fixed new guttering. Installed ventilation tiles. Stripped any areas they tanked on inside walls. Lowered the ground levels to the front of property. Stripped carpets and underlays throughout (we use rugs now so it allows some air flow through the gaps in the floors). After a hot sunny summer the house is bone dry now and seems to be staying dry. I just open the windows for a couple of hours a day as I work from home. I put on a fleece and its a bit cold but it's a small price to pay to ensure the house stays dry.
Too many people forget the build concepts were totally different back then with solid walls and the need to vent for fireplaces. Trying to make a solid wall home behave like a modern cavity wall home is an exercise in futility. Having said that, some modern homes are a little too airtight. There needs to be more regs RE passive ventilation or mandatory positive pressure venting.
mould only forms in stagnant wet air. irony is humans actually benefit from some moisture in the air.... i use an evoprative cooler when i sleep (drawing in outside air, filtering it and hydrating it)... my skin isnt dry and itchy anymore, i sleep better for longer and feel more rested.
@@Jonathan_Doe_ that’s so interesting. I always always under the impression that older builds were able to contain heat thicker due to the thicker / perhaps stone walls. Is this not so? I learn something new every day
The internet needs more people like you Charlie! - Once again my mind has just been blown. Thanks for taking the time to make this, and sharing your knowledge, especially as saving £££ is more important than ever!
2 other very simple tips that cost nothing and actually save a little money, put a lid on any pans when cooking, this makes a big difference to the amount of vapour released but also means you don't require as much energy to heat the pan. Secondly, keep the lid of the loo down. This avoids the evaporation of the water from the toilet. A couple of final bonus tips, dry up any washing up rather than leaving it on the draining board to air dry, as all that happens in that case is the moisture goes up into the air. Then put the damp cloth in the bathroom/toilet room to air dry where the moist air can be extracted by the extractor fan. Then finally, hang up any wet towels in the bathroom rather than leaving them in bedrooms etc in a heap on the floor. Again the moisture can then escape via the air vent. It is amazing how much these things plus all the tips in the video, especially the Karcher after a shower makes. So much of damp and mould issues is down to lifestyle issues rather than anything else. Taking these simple measures can save you a lot of time and money in the long run as it avoids damage to your property.
You can defrost food fast in plastic bags in a bowl of water with a slow running cold tap running into it to keep the water warmer than freezing, water being a good conductor speeds up defrosting ten times over.
This is what happened to me last winter. This apartment is maybe less than 8 years old. Decided to keep the heating bills lower so I kept the windows shut & wrapped up. About 2/3 months later I had condensation mould about 3 feet up the walls behind the wardrobes & beds. Literally had to throw half of the contents of my wardrobe in the bin & had to redecorate every room with anti damp paint. Won't be doing that again this winter. Thank you for this video
I am going through that now. My flat is about 10 years old too but 6 months of living here, I have ended up with mould behind wardrobes, moldy mattress and clothes. I've had throw away so much. How is it now for you? Any improvements?
Exactly. I don't have a problem with limescale up in Worcester but used to big time when I lived in SE London (before my squeegee days!). I found diluted vinegar in a spray bottle very good for cleaning the glass.
I have a Karcher I use just like the one shown. Problem with it is that they need serious modification as unless used upright and moved up/down slowly, water can get into the motor area which then risks getting to the electronics. I have curved glass shower screen so have to use it sideways; on my third one I decided to get medieval with it before I started using it.
Water softener solved that problem for me, they are fantastic. Problem is I no longer use the squeegee after showers... Might do again after this video.
One thing I do that I don't think anyone else has mentioned in the comments, is to use a flannel in the shower to wash down & then at the end of the shower before getting out, squeeze out the flannel & use it to wipe off the majority of water left in your hair & on your skin wringing out the flannel as it becomes laden with water, it usually takes 3-4 wrings & takes 20-30 seconds to complete & you will be amazed at how much water this removes so that when you finish drying with a towel, the towel will be very much drier as it has probably had to remove only 20-25% off the moisture it would have had to do. Result, towel dry quicker & much less water vapor is released into the bathroom as towel dries. Yes, it's a little more time & effort, but worth it, buy a flannel from £1- £5 give it a try & it has cleaning benefits compared to just soaping down your body using your hands with a bar of soap or shower gel.
I have a compressor dehumidifier and it's amazing. The difference before and after getting it is immediately noticeable. The amount of water it takes out of the air is honestly amazing. I also keep a humidity meter in a prominent place so I can check when I need to run it. As others have mentioned it also gives off some heat too. So it's not wasting energy in winter. It comes in useful.
over a year ago i began sleeping in a room with fresh outside air being pumped in, filtered and hydrated.... (essentially a swap cooler/evaporative cooler no more dry itchy skin, no more waking up with carpet mouth. i sleep better, longer and wake feeling leagues better. mould only forms in stagnant wet air. removing all moisture from the air is detramental to human health
Thank you so much Charlie for this brilliant video. I've recently purchased a dehumidifier to reduce levels of moisture in the house and have been shocked at just how many litres of water it's collected in a couple of days!. House feels much warmer and drier already. Subscribed!
My memory as a kid was every morning my dad religiously going around the upstairs rooms of the house wiping the moisture off the windows with a shammy. Now... I do the same :)
Thanks for the information. Since the majority of energy wasted by a dehumidifier will be in the form of heat it's perhaps more efficient than it first seems because you are also slightly heating your space and offsetting heating costs by that small fraction (assuming your heating is on at the time).
A dehumidifier actually does even better than that, as when water vapour condenses on a surface it warms it slightly via latent heat (opposite process of when water evaporates off our skin, cooling it). Therefore a 200w dehumidifier will actually provide around 250w of heating to the space!
@@Ralphius86 I was immediately thinking that didn’t make sense. But I think you’re right providing you empty the water tank of cold water and remove it from the room down the sink you get all of the energy that was in that water vapour and put that into the air inside the room. It will come out the condenser side of the compressor dehumidifier.
Yes exactly, the air from my condensing dehumidifier is 1°C warmer than the surrounding air. It takes a long time, but it does increase the room temperature noticeably (while drying my clothes).
A lot of people do not realise this when they talk about wasted energy in things like plug adapters and lights dotted around the house. In the Summer when your heating is off, yes, all the heat from these things is a complete waste of energy but, in the Winter, that is distributed heating and if you have a thermostat system (which everyone should), it can mean less heat needs to be provided by your main heating system. Sure, gas (or whatever better heating system you may have) is cheaper than electricity for heating but it is still useful and is not usually a huge amount. Also, any heat source sets up convection currents which will help air to move around e.g. adapters in sockets in the corners of rooms.
Living in a freezing Victorian flat I have both bays open wide for as long as possible every day no matter what the temperature outside. Just ordered a Karcher to do the windows and shower after struggling for years with a squeegee and soggy cloths following your informed advice. Understanding the science is all, thanks to your video I now know why condensation forms and the mould that follows which formed everywhere until I religiously opened all the windows every day. Love all the other valuable little snippets from other commenters too. I will be doing these too. Thanks everyone!
Thank you for the information you have provided! This is the most helpful information I’ve ever heard from anyone to stop my damp house problems I had for over fifteen years. My windows had no condensation this morning when using the dehumidifier for the first time during the night!❤ My whole family was so happy!
We've been been banging our heads against the wall trying to understand how this happens as we thought we'd done everything right. That's the most informative video I've seen on this subject Charlie thank you so much ! Your content has been a great inspiration. I am wiser (if not slightly poorer) as a result 🤣
Thanks so much - very humbling you find my stuff useful. Just hope you're not in the market for an Ebac 3850. It seems they're out of stock everywhere right now 🙏
@@CharlieDIYte just bought an ebac 4000 series and I can t believe the difference it makes. I put it it on for a couple of hours in the evening... And now when we wake in the morning our windows are condensation free !
Yeah dry clothes in room with door shut windows open that gets sun, probably with heating off as well. Houses especially mattresses need airing daytime especially rooms your not using daytime.
@SmilerKyle. I live in a rented property and the house is always cold , the odd thing is in the summer it’s like a greenhouse despite having all the windows open . None of the doors leading outside are fitted correctly and neither are the double glazed windows . I asked the property owner to sort these issues out and was told to open all windows and doors with no heating . It was warmer outside in the winter than indoors . Sucks
@@marklittler784 I always pull back the sheets/ blankets on the bed after getting up, and leave the bed air for 20-30 minutes while starting breakfast. Then I make the bed without trapping in the moisture.
Brilliant article, thank you. I am old enough to have lived in a house with no central heating and just a coal fire in the sitting room, the fire drew air in from outside via our rattley, ill-fitting doors and windows ( insulation - none, draught-proof strip made of foam sponge around the door or a copper strip). Frozen leaf patterns on the inside of the windows and getting dressed under the bed covers. Can’t believe we’re going back to those days. We have just used Wallrock thermal insulation fabric internally on two outside walls, what a difference, not too expensive a diy job either. Perhaps you should ask Liz Truss to put this out as a public information film!
Thanks Jane. Yes I also would get dressed under the bed sheets for the same reason, and water frozen in the tooth brush mug in the morning! You're right, insulation makes a massive difference. I insulated the internal walls upstairs and it's transformed the ability to heat each room.
I was born in communism growing up in a ramshackle house in the 80's with exactly the same: frozen toilets/pipes and windows frozen over (we used to call them 'ice flowers', a coal oven that needed to be set up in the morning and washing with just a hot water cloth... Today I actually benefit from learning as a kid how to maximise my (limited) resources, being practical and appreciate all the luxuries of the Western world.
Quality video Charlie. This the best and most concise explanation for a problem that has haunted us for years. We're now building a modern well-insulated home, which we're doing with a fabric first approach, so will be ensuring that we get the fundamentals right, but for many people this isn't an option. We are now entering the time of year where I have to go over the principles of condensation AGAIN with my Daughter, we do it every year. She will learn a lot when I force her to watch this video, maybe she needs to hear it from someone else.
Architect here: your internal walls are not built to have one side heated and other side cold, ie heating only one room. This will create condensation within the wall, which will lead to mould. The whole house/flat needs to be the same temp. Running a dehumidifier will help to a point, but there is also a cost to consider. Btw, the ideal air humidity is between 50 to 60%, above to below will make the timber in your house shrink/expand = not ideal to continue to have this much movement. For ventilation, do as the Germans do, air for 20 to 30 mins twice a day. It's actually written into rental agreements.
You don’t need to be a big balllox Architect to know, don’t leave unused Rooms cold in the Winter, you basically just have heat migration from the heated rooms to the cold ones, it’s the Exterior Walls that are ‘hopefully’ insulated on any building, not the internal partitions. Latest Skool of thought regarding Home Heating, is Air to Air Heat Pumps, with strict control of the moisture levels👍. What do you think of these apples dafty Architect??!!
… Dry your laundry in your bathroom with the door almost closed (due to the cable from dehumidifier) with dehumidifier on. It will dry quickly the clothes and the bathroom (around 2h depending on type of clothes, thicker might need longer time to dry up to 4h depending on the bathroom size). Very good video about condensation and dump …
You can take advantage of the condensation on windows as a way to dehumidify as long as you squeegee or vac the condensation off each day. It's got to help.
I watched a video about humidity some time ago - they likened the air to a sponge. The warmer the air gets, the bigger the sponge, therefore the more water it can hold (and of course the colder it gets, the smaller the sponge and the less water it can hold). Worked for me!
Very interesting, this is a problem I can hardly even imagine having in winter. Here in Sweden I have to keep an air humidifier working overtime just to keep my air humidity from dropping below 40% in winter. I wonder if this is to do with the way your houses are constructed or just an effect of British "winter" being almost all rain and next to no snow.
Most definitely the way houses are constructed. I am from the Netherlands and they have similar winters to where we live in the UK now (the south east), and many houses here have problems with condensation, where I barely ever hear of that in NL. Didn’t expect the humidity to be so low in Sweden!
@@maartjeramakers1572 It's interior humidity I mean. The outside has higher relative humidity, in the high sixties, but the relative humidity is relative to temperature and outside tempereture in winter is around 0 C here so when you let that cold air in and heat it to up 20 degrees the relative humidity drops like a brick.
I think it has a lot to do with the outside temperature. I've noticed that as soon the weather is dry and/or below freezing, the air in my apartment becomes dry so I have to run two humidifiers to keep humidity at 45-50%
So, yeah, couldn't agree more. My mrs was complaining like mad about air being to dry however with automation I got the RH to 40 - 55 %, and things like living room / dining room / kitchen can drop to 7C overnight without any condensation and we're saving a ton in heating. Keep up the good work ! ps. fun fact - dehumidifiers: when extracting the humidity actually heat the place ! Yes there is an energy loss from the refrigeration unit, however the latent heat of evaporation is about 4 times as much when you condensate the water - net result is that your place is dry, but a lot warmer.
After watching many of your videos over the past few weeks I decided to buy an Ebac 4000 series Dehumidifier. I have tried other brands in the past and none of them have worked. However, the Ebac is absolutely the answer to all of our condensation problems. Our bungalow has been on average 70% relative humidity so far this autumn/winter season. Same every year. It makes the place feel damp and cold all the time. The windows are constantly dripping wet with condensation in the morning and the bathroom ceiling sprouts mould (or mold depending on your preferred spelling). Since using the Ebac the RH is a constant 49% and absolutely no more wet windows or mould growth anywhere. Best of all, Ebac is a British company and all of their appliances are made in Britain. This has 100% cured our problem. So glad I found your channel, otherwise I would never have known about Ebac. The atmosphere in the house just feels so much healthier. No more horrible cold, damp smell. Keep up the good work 👍
Great video. We bought a Meaco dehumidifier - great purchase. Aswell as general dehumidifying it’s great for clothes drying - much better than the heated airers. Laundry mode aims to get to 35% and runs for six hours. Its maximum consumption is 240 watts so even at the new 34p per kw/h maximum rate it’s just over 8p per hour.
I've been using a floor standing dehumidifier to dry clothes but what I also do is run a large desk fan on the floor pointing at the washing, with the washing hung over an airer edge ways on relative to the fan you get a massive amount of airflow over the washing and it dries a lot quicker. The dehumidifier can then do it's job of drying the air.
@@djjluvv sounds like we definitely need it. Our new loft room is perfect but rest of the house gets cold and damp so easily. Sadly Argos no longer have them on offer, lucky to get them for such less than £300 but worth the money! Thanks for your reply
What a brilliant video! We have started to implement changes to combat mould especially after we bought a new bed. Our old divan had lots of mould under it which we had been sleeping on for yonks🙈 we couldn’t smell it even until we started to strip it down when taking it out. We were very concerned…Our new bed now has room underneath it so air can move about-resisting the urge to store anything under it too! A wool duvet was a game changer to keep warm at night and now throw duvet off the bed in the morning to let it air for a few hours, gets rid of any trapped moisture in the bed. The urge to not make the bed immediately is hard to shake off lol. Hope it helps someone else sharing our story. Thanks Charlie! Squigee is on board and hydrometer purchased…i love it when a plan comes together 💪
Thanks so much for that. Yes you've solved the bed problem with the ventilation, and as you say, with a plan in place you should keep any damp problems in check going forward 👌👊
I’ve had a Drimaster PIV system in every house, from a new build to a 1920s terrace and it’s made a massive difference each time. Highly recommended. Thanks for a great informative video!
Another great vid full of sound advice, thanks Charlie. The PIV we’ve installed has been the most effective measure we’ve taken to resolving the inherent damp problem in our 250 year old cottage. Ours is a Nuaire system and I can’t recommend it enough if you've got similar problems. We also use a Karcher to clean the shower. It’s effective, but they’re not long lived and Karcher’s after-sales service us appalling. There’s good internet advice on how to repair them by folk that have managed to resolve the poor reliability (usually down to electrics).
Hi Charlie, thanks for the video. We have a heat pump tumble dryer and I have some actual energy useage measeurements from it: a full towels load straight from the washing machine takes 0.9kWh of energy to run full cycle (to a standard drying setting), compared to an older Bosch condensing tumble dryer with the same load which took 1.75kWh. Of course with both of these the energy used turns into local heat, inside the house if that is where it is located, last winter I used to set our washing machine to run in the early hours then put on the tumble dryer first thing in the morning, to help with the early morning house heat up, which makes sense to some degree, but if you use mains gas (as we do) then it is worth considering that one kWh of electricity is likely at least three times the price of a kWh of gas. So my thoughts for this winter are: if we are going to put the tumble dryer on anyway then try to do so at a time when the heat will be useful, but don't let the 'bonus' heat factor in to the decision of whether to use the tumble dryer or not.
There is many things in life we do because we thinks it better but actually its the opposite, this is one of them, people avoid using 1KWH of electric to dry clothes and instead leave them to dry in a room with a window shut over 24 hours is going to add so much moisture into there property that when it comes to heating it will takes 8kwh of gas just to combat this. my opinion is get a heatpump and use that, save money on the gas and also more importantly then the cost your HEALTH, high humidity will make you ill, its not worth the 40p saving in a kwh of electric.
We do everything mentioned here. Even have the window vac to do all the tiles. Amazing how much water that collects. The Ultimate winner for us, is the 2x dehumidifiers with cloths drying mode which we dont actually use! Our desicant type dehuhmidifiers also warm up the air and reduces the need for main heating. Thumbs up from us, to Charlie. We should also point out that we have 2x Pureair units that burn every virus, pollen, germ and dust particle which only use 50 watts per hour and add warmth to the rooms. Fruit on the table is definately lasting "many weeks" longer which is supposed to be one of the plus points for these units. We agree with that point.
Hey, fantastic info, really needed this. 2 questions: 1. Should we close curtains in the winter or not, as the condensation is a lot. What about the heat lost from keeping them open at night? 2. Does heat leak out of the window gaps wasting energy and causing higher heating bills? Thanks so much again, Mim
I think you've got to close the curtains to be honest. But get a window vac and vacuum the windows down every morning. It'll prevent mould forming and remove a lot of moisture that otherwise would have circulated back into the air.
@@CharlieDIYte thanks ever so, will defo look at window vacs. Any thoughts about the heat escaping through windows and using up energy and money? Really appreciate your help
Whole house Mechanical Heat Recovery Ventilation is the ultimate solution. Any serious house renovation which increases energy efficiency should have MVHR as part of the plan. We did it and after a year of use and no other ventilation we have a toasty and dry internal home.
Thank you dear. As i told you once before, we seldom open our windows here or doors unless we are nearby because we have monkeys coming in and causing havoc. What we have done is we bought some air dehumidifiers and put them all over the house. They have sort of crystals(?) in the top and the moisture is drawn into the container, and believe me, theres lots of it…..and they arent very expensive which is a bonus. They dont run on electricity, they are stand alone containers….i can send you a photo if you like….but thanks for this helpful video…take care
It does take more energy to heat humid air, but humid air also holds more heat energy so the boiler would need to top up the heat less often than dry air
Great video, I was feeling awful for the last few months and had trouble sleeping and couldn't figure out why, then realised it started around the same time the weather was getting cold and I stopped opening any of my windows. Got a hygrometer and the humidity in my room was over 70%. Spent a few hours over next few days airing out my house, and most importantly cleaned all of the vents and trickle vents inside the house, it's a very old house and they were all fully blocked with dirt and mould basically. The difference in air quality since doing this is night and day, humidity is now around 55% and I'm back to feeling myself and being able to sleep again. Maybe a video on cleaning vents and trickle vents would help a lot of people out, if you haven't done that already. I used cleaning sprays and a water flosser which is probably a bit unconventional.
I didn’t really worry or even think about humidity until I started 3D printing. The humidity level directly affects the quality of your prints because the 3D filament sucks up the moisture. So off I went and bought a number of cheap humidity sensors to put around my house. I was amazed to see how the humidity fluctuated throughout the day. I have my tools on pegboards in my garage and I started to get worried that they may start to rust, I’m told that this could happen at 75% humidity. I now use damp free crystals in partial 3D printed homemade containers around the house to limit humidity. You. Would be surprised to see how much water is pulled out of the air in my garage every month.
It’s feels quite counterintuitive to open windows makes it easier to heat your home. But what you’ve gone through makes sense, thanks. Now just have to get the mrs and kids on side!
In our house condensation forms overnight, but 90% of this can be avoided by simply opening the windows for 5 minutes, fully, before going to bed. Then all the moisture from the day, can be zapped out of the house, quickly- warm air rises etc). We can test this with monitoring tools. it works. Best of all, upstairs quickly warms up again, as the walls are warm. Great tip to open windows when cooking , in addition to extractor fan. I bet most people do not even consider this. Wish there were simple Single Room Heat Recovery )SRHR) Systems that were smaller, they do not need to be 80% effective, to work. Compared to basically a hole in the wall, anything is better than nothing, especially if it stops cold wind (as mentioned in the video). With many of us now working in sheds and timber buildings we need to keep air flowing on cold days and need to manage moisture, AND increases in Co2 caused by breathing. I have to sit with my window open, yep, even at minus 5 to ensure that I stay awake during the day. If I close the window my Co2 sensor, and humidity sensor goes mad after an hour.. (I do mean Co2 - there is zero heating in my garden office, I am the sole source of that, that and a computer). Any suggestions welcome, especially for thin walled buildings?
There is a gotcha with heat pump dryers. They need a minimum air temperature of about 10c to work. So you can't put them in unheated garages and out buildings.
In a new build apartment we had once drying outside on the balcony was “forbidden”. They installed tumble driers but they can’t be used for everything as clothes are damaged so people would dry inside and as you said they were air tight and thus, masses of condensation and so many people had huge damp problems and entire flats needed to be re plastered. Badly built to be as warm as possible and no trickle vents But people also didn’t realise the need to ventilate either.
Bad ventilation was one of the main reasons for the covid plandemic - locking people up inside was criminal but got the result the government wanted , it was never about saving lives and everything about escalating the problem to justify their solution and ultimate plan ! Very very sinister . Who suffered the worst with covid 🤔 , poor people , living in small damp properties , bad diets combined with bad quality air and what can you expect ! Like Charlie I can’t emphasise enough the need for better quality air in the home - living in a confined box full of toxic things and very little air changes is absolutely terrible , consider better ventilation with the best systems being MVHR .
We run our dehumidifier overnight when our electricity is cheap. It’s in our laundry room mainly but I put it upstairs or in the centre of the house every so often to do a purge on the moisture. Our tumble drier is a a heat pump machine and it is so cheap to use. 20p an hour during off peak!
This must be a UK thing, because in Canada where I live we actually buy humidifiers for use in winter to make the air more humid to feel warmer. We only use dehumidifiers during the warm months (unheated basements in winter can actually get too cold to operate dehumidfiers).
Thank you for posting this. I use my boat a lot during winter, it's full of cold surfaces, so the thing about moisture in cold air or the lack of it will be a game changer. It's also confirmed why the years she was simply left ventilated without dehumidifier were the driest. Going back to that and am going to seriously enjoy the savings £££. Of course another big plus to all this is more ventilation is invaluable in the fight against Covid and all other airborne viruses, spores, etc too.
Since seeing your original video when it came out, we got monitoring. Major change was a dehumidifier in our utility where we air washing on our old fashion airer. Certainly makes a massive difference, Clothes dryer quicker, and you can feel warmth in the room. I think the kids have nicked the squeegees from the bathrooms. Recommend buying a unit, we have a unit from Screwfix, it does a great job. Great stuff Charlie!!
Proud of you Graham. 👊 Brilliant work with the dehumidifier. I have local friends who had mould in their hall. I repainted it for them and I did a video on it. What I couldn't believe was they were hanging all their washing in a windowless utility next door. I told them about the massive problem they were creating - they had mould and rotting plasterboard - but unfortunately they're one of those couple who think they know best - and recently they complained to me that the mould has come back - kind of suggesting I hadn't painted the hall properly. What can you do 🤦🤷♂️
@@CharlieDIYte I have also changed valves on all radiators for the Drayton system. Hoping to keep control this winter. Stop showing ideas, costing a fortune!
@@Gaatyeo Looking for controls that allow 1/10 of a degree increments. We have a Nest room stat and interested in the Honeywell evohome that allows each room to independently be heated at separate temps and or to schedule. The main problem we have and dislike is the 1+ degree in temp variance that the heating system does. We have a condensing combi gas boiler with nest room stat and recently relocated it to ensure it better controls temps. Things are better since. So the problem is when we set temp to 21° it then will heat that room to 21.5° (and probably need that until we have something similar to evohome) then not heat up again until it drops to just below 20.5° and if set room temp for nest to 20.5° then the low swing is 19° Celsius which can be cold in an old drafty property. We have no problem with mould whatsoever or ventilation but because of the drafts lower temps are not bearable. It would feel like having windows open in every room if we set nest room stat below 20.5. I knew someone that had a Drayton room stat that allowed 10th of a degree temperate controls but I am not sure if this allows the heating temp to remain stable. Their heating would come on and remain more stable within precise narrow window whereas our temperatures make it uncomfortable to have a 1 plus degree swing. I don't understand why room stats are not programmed to just maintain the temp they are set to rather than have the huge high and low swing. At the current time we have boiler water (radiator water) temp set to 64° Celsius which is ok but in colder winter weather we set this to 80° Celsius because it just can't keep up keeping a cold drafty property warm for 12 large double radiators. We have two mostly unused rooms with TRV valves set to heat up to 16° Celsius with no mould issues. Garage has a dehumidifier which gets loads of water out each day due to single wall bricks and a heater set to come on at 6° Celsius. Just wish there was a solution to the peaks and valleys swing temperatures. Not only uncomfortable but also not economical and we have TRVs on every radiator and even if we did get the Honeywell evohome I think we would still have the temperature swings. How to avoid this I wonder...
Looking at this I glad I live in Gauteng, South Africa. We have no electricity from government at time but we have so much sun that solar is working like a charm and we don’t have humidity or extreme cold weather. I used to live in Germany and cannot imagine how to survive in that weather without heating
Watched this and went straight out and bought a dehumidifier for my daughter for her home. Great advice here, especially as people won't be heating their homes up as much due to the steep energy price increases.
Exactly…my father taught me everything about ventilation and harbouring damp air in the house which WILL create mould . ESPECIALLY the DO NOT dry wet clothes indoors or on rads and open a window to shower. Wet air in the home that can’t escape takes longer to heat the home because any heat has to work hard to dry the dampness first ! It’s just makes sense … 👍👍
Excellent piece as usual Charlie. Just sat down for a tea break from the ongoing renovations of my cottage, where damp is an issue, have reduced the problem significantly with windows ajar especially when showering. My dehumidifier is a little hungry on energy but will have to use it. My biggest issue is to get my wife to comply with the rules😂 Many thanks👍
Thanks James. 👊 You have that problem as well. I've told her so many times not to fill the kettle to the top when we're just making two mugs I bought a 2 mug 600w kettle on eBay the other day and it will be replacing that one you see in the vid. Plus I have a silent rebellion on the shower window point. I think they open it when they're done, to placate me! Great work on the house. Sounds like you're getting there!
@@janetwilliams2835 i have to monitor the lights on in the house as my hubby thinks we live in Blackpool. The times I've come home to a house with all the lights on and no one in. Kettle too, filled almost to the top for 1 drink.grrrrr I definately need to get 1 of those kettles.
Thank You Charlie, never had much idea about the moisture in the conservatory and now after watching your brilliant video we will be purchasing a dehumidifier, 👍
Shower every 3rd day cuts that humidity by 2/3. Once a week shower is fantastic reduction. Multiplied by 2 - 4 people in the home... Think of the energy saving, not to mention the time lost to vacuuming windows.
@@thomashenderson3901 😂 Yes, but you can still be clean if you have a strip-wash at the bathroom sink in between showers. I can remember when virtually no-one had showers and baths were a once-a-week event (little kids usually shared) 😊
Great video as usual. Only issue i have is opening windows in winter is counter productive. Our climate in winter offers an external air with 80-90% humidity. I find opening windows in winter makes things worse.
Dehumidifiers are a good piece of kit if you use them right. In a heavily insulated home the air is fairly stagnant, so if you add a fan to the mix, it helps push the moist air around your home and give it a chance to get caught in your dehumidifier. I have experimented and found that my dehumidifer is more than twice as effective when I use a fan. I use a Dyson type fan where there airflow isn't that noticeable, just enough to get the air moving.
Yes a small weak fan that draw air in from a small radius around the unit. If you have a larger fan to push the air around the room your dehumidifier will have access to much more untreated air and collection will be vastly improved. Also if you use a fan it pushes moisture off surfaces into the air for treatment.
I haven't watched the video yet but each year Charlie always takes on the moisture. Can't wait to watch it, I wonder x years on if he's still asking his family to open the window after using the bathroom and them telling him no lol
I think this is more for places like the Pacific Northwest and the British Isles. The Midwest, where I live, are so cold and dry, the humidity is around 20% inside.
We all can have mold issues. And insulation helps even in tropical climates to keep out the heat. From what a Malaysian born person I know has said, they keep the AC on all the time.
Your "Environment" advice was a forehead-slap-game-changer realisation for me and my sopping wet condensation window problem in my old stone cottage ...makes so much sence, once pointed out to you 🙄 ...thank you 🙏🏻😁
I have the same Ikea squeegee x 3! It gives me such a sense of satisfaction to see all the water go down the drain instead of into the air. Plus, I have definitely gotten much quicker with the squeegee since starting with it. I wonder if a visual of how much air can hold at different temperatures would be helpful.
In my experience I'm usually struggling to keep the air moisture high enough to be comfortable during winter. Literally, running a humidifier 24/7 throughout the winter months. As someone with bad sinuses, air moisture levels makes a massive difference to me.
@@dennykeaton9701 The UK has a maritime climate, it is humid all year round. I'm guessing Ohio has a continental climate. Nantucket or Orlando would probably be more like us
Don't know why yt recommended this video to me. Alberta is so dry if I don't run a humidifier my skin cracks and bleeds, static shocks when I touch things. But I always like to learn. Maybe one day this knowledge will come in handy. Cheers
Charlie, do a secondary glazing install video on your secondary glazing. You can get units which are magnetic. Would help with your heat loss massively!
We run a couple of dessiccant type dehumidifiers in our house during the Winter months, one upstairs, the other downstairs, they have the benefit of adding a little background heat too
LoL! I am that other guy with an Ikea squeegee. In fact I have one spare. I religiously wipe down after every shower, esp. as en-suite (cubicle). Furthermore, after doing this and leaving extractor on for another 10 mins I use the Ikea little sprayer bottle for plants with v.diluted bleach to give a quick "squeege" in corners of the shower and the squeegee itself. You would not believe the results: two years from resealing and cleaning and not a spot of mould or black mark anywhere.
I have the same IKEA squeegee, of you squeegee every time it really cuts down on the amount of cleaning you have to do too. Limescale doesn't really build up and you just have to give it a wipe over once a week to keep it sparkling. No scrubbing at orange marks. I use a daily shower spray too, I just spray the head and valve and a spray on the tray. It just breaks the surface tension of water in any nooks and crannies allowing it to run off. I used to really hate cleaning the shower but now Its so easy I don't mind
We do too. And as others have said it stops scale on the glass and a quick wipe of the chrome plumbing with a micro fibre cloth keeps the shower like new. All of this takes
Winter in Canada when it is well blow freezing the air gets too dry. Love hanging the laundry to raise humidity. 🇨🇦. Try ceiling fans as well. Lived in the tropics. There we had mould issues
Really interesting video, Charlie. You mentioned that opening the window doesn't let damp air in. I live in a very damp part of the UK with far more misty/rainy days than dry ones. When I open windows on those days, the relative humidity readings on my indoor hygrometers rise. Does that sound normal?
Yes. He explained that absolute amount of moisture that the air can hold is dependent on its temperature. Colder air can hold less water. So the colder air that you let in air will hold less water, but its relative humidity is higher because it's holding more water relative to its temperature. It's closer to the maximum that it can hold. Soon as you close the window and heat the air, the relative humidity will drop, and the absolute amount of water in the air will be less. Or so I understood!
Had a PIV system installed about a week ago. What a difference ...amazing. And I didn't even install it in my hallway....it's in my kitchen. Condensation pretty much disappeared over about 3 days and I've barely noticed the house being colder.
Ah, brilliant - really glad to hear that. If you can though switch it off when you're cooking so as not to pummel that vapour from cooking around the house. 👍
@@CharlieDIYte extractor fan above the hob and window typically opened a crack when creating a lot of steam. I haven't switched off the PIV at all yet....hadn't really intended to. The biggest problem with condensation I had was in the morning but that's pretty much all gone now. I'm genuinely surprised at how quickly and effectively the PIV has worked.
Though it may seem counter-intuitive, Exchanging the air by opening all doors and windows wide, even in the winter for just 5 minutes, is also a good idea a couple of times a day. This can reduce the moisture content by up to 10% very quickly, and the air temperature will only drop a degree or two, though the drier air will heat up again quickly, especially as interior surfaces (walls, floors) remain warm.
So after watching all your videos on this we have been using a window vacuum for a couple of months that helped with our condensation issues but we finally pulled the trigger on a PIV and it is a game changer. After 2 days there was visibly less condensation after a week the upstairs walls that were always sopping wet after the four of us showered are now dry. It's seriously amazing...
I'm definitely part of the squeegee crew - I think it's fairly normal to do the glass screen but I do feel a bit mad doing the walls and floor. But as you say, it does feel like no-one was ever there about 10 minutes later. Question regarding drying clothes: you said opening the window in the room where the clothes are hanging is ideal, but is there no impact from the temperature of the room? The room will be much colder so wouldn't the clothes take longer to dry?
I know what you mean. I think you have to experiment with what works best - maybe experiment with opening the window just enough for air circulation/ moisture escape but the best thing you can do is get a dehumidifier. Then you don't even need to open the window. It will dry your clothes beautifully in a couple of hours without the need for a heated airer and the cost will be minimal.
Those little humidity catchers you can get fron the pound shops really show you how much water can be in thr house. I have them in the bathroom and rooms that are not being used much and they really work well for those on a budget
I don't think I have ever seen a product with so much positive feeback as the PIV system. I installed one and followed all the instructions (soffit vents, sealant around light fittings etc) but it did absolutely nothing for damp or condensation. I was gutted.
Cracking video Charlie. Thanks for all the really useful info and explanations. It's really helpful to have this reminder now so that I can make sure the damp doesn't form rather than trying to deal with the fallout in a few months time!! Nice one 👍
Really good vid. I bought a karcher specifically for our shower and religiously dry it all down after use. Will be opening our kitchen window onto the latch from now on after seeing this vid. Thanks. 👍
If you leave your windows on the first latch you effectively create a cold spot where water will condensate which might cause the growth of mold. Better to open the windows fully for around 5 minutes several times a day to get rid of excess moisture. Even better if you can create a through draughts.
There’s another post from an architect saying that Germany has landlord / tenant legislation requiring tenant to open windows for certain amounts of time several times a day (guess not enforced when tenants are on holiday?!).
Don't agree with the outside air being dry even when it's wet! Only applies if you heat it! Case in point an unheated house with a dehumidifier will stay fairly dry with doors and windows shut but leave the door open even for 5-10 minutes and the dehumidifier will have to work to remove the moisture. Also the moisture in that air will come to an equilibrium with the fabric of the building meaning you will get mould (day/night/solar gain temp swings leading to condensation). Also if its wet and mild outside which the UK often is, even in winter, you can't heat the air enough to change the relative humidity to an acceptable level unless you are going to keep your house at 20C constantly which people can't afford to do. Also the moisture in the fabric of the building will be released as the temperature rises, buffering the humidity. Long and the short of it is you are going to need to remove moisture or heat the house, or both to avoid damp. Make use of solar gain, allow rooms to heat up and crack open a window/vent once warm, shut again before things cool down. Mild and wet outside, try to keep things shut up. Still use extractors for cooking/bathrooms. It should be fairly economical to use the heating on a day like this and it will lower relative humidity. Cold and dry outside you are going to get condensation on windows etc. A window vac is probably a very sensible in this case. In a draughty damp house you could get 100ml per window and its cheaper than running a dehumidifier. You will have to have some heating on so maybe just set the thermostat 1 or 2 degrees lower and use a spare duvet. Maybe heat one room at a time. It's a bad situation if you can't afford to heat the house (or the house is hard to keep warm). I spent last winter in thermals and blankets/sleeping bags and that was with the heating on!
I have a hygrometer and dehumidifier (that eBac one). Sometimes I open windows and the humidity drops for a short period, then increases. And various other things happen. But opening the windows does not consistently lower overall humidity in my home all the time. I tend to keep windows closed so humidifier can do it's work efficiently on auto all the time. Will do some more experimenting. Quality of health has improved significantly after getting dehumidifier and leaving on auto, I bought it for drying clothes.
Great work Will, buying the dehumidifier. Opening the windows is really a resort for people who are generating a lot of moisture with no means of allowing it to escape. As you rightly say, if you've got a dehumidifier it operates best with the windows shut. 👌
I live in a 3 storey house. Have always dried the bathroom walls after baths & showers & agree within minutes of drying and with an open window you can't tell that bathroom has been used. I dry my clothes in winter on a pull out line on the top floor landing, it's the warmest place in the house. I shut all the doors up there and open the window. It's done me and family well for 30+ years and no damp 🙏
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Smart mode runs constantly does yours ever turn off
This is a man who has dedicated his life to reducing the moisture content in his house. Thank you for sharing your knowledge
He does it so we don't have to.
@@andreasu.3546 beautiful
well... for at least two years prior to making this video. So four years of his entire life at least :)
Ah man this is hilarious
I think he admitted he only discovered this 2 weeks ago.
He went on to admit it if you care to listen..
It is not rocket science.
I worked abroad some years back in a global company and the scandinavians complained so much about the British winters when they were used to minus 20.
It is the humidity level they do not expect when they see the temp in winter only tends to get to minus 5 or so and they were used to minus 25..
Purchased: August 2022 - still works GREAT! th-cam.com/users/postUgkxxsUnXhGsSJLim_XnMHyQK0u3XVaW-CGn I live in a studio and during the summer it gets scorching hot - really old building with no ac units. I can’t express how EASY it was to install.This unit has been a life savior during the summer and some days during other seasons where it can still be a bit warm at night. In this small place is my friend, a husky, poodle mix and myself. We need AC - lolI don’t use the dehumidifier option - I’m not sure if it will leak in my house, since I did not install the small draining hose that came with it. May look into it late but I don’t worry about much humidity in the apartment.I don’t understand why the negative reviews since all things mentioned, I personally did not find issues with. Definitely worth it!
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Good to see someone who understands this problem. I worked in the damp proofing industry for around 10 years in in the 80's, and about a third of the calls I got to supposed 'rising damp' were actually condensation. One point I would make is this: the (NET) cost of running a dehumidifier really needs to take into account the heat released by the machine itself. This is the latent heat contained in the moisture. The heat (energy) that was used to evaporate the water in the first place is still there - contained in the moist air. The dehumidifier releases it. Therefore your central heating thermostat will stop calling for heat a little sooner than it would otherwise. Obviously no machine is 100% efficient, so it can't cancel out the electricity cost altogether. Ebac are a British made machine and that was my first choice, about five years ago. Sadly, the extraction rate plummeted after a year or so, despite buying new (expensive) filters. So we replaced it with a 10 litre Meaco model - and that has been great: still extracts a good 5 lires a night from late October onwards. It's rated at 150w but when I checked it out, actually uses only 122 w. It works out at just over a Kwh per night, which at the present cost, is just over 33p + vat.
My first ebac broke after 4 yrs, replaced under GTE, broke after 2 more yrs , replaced with another Ebac that lasted 4 years . Changed brands now ,
How are you collecting 5 litres a night?? :O the humidity in my flat ranges between 55-80%, and even after drying laundry for 5/6 hours, I don't even half fill the tank of my Meaco (2 or 3 litre tank)
@@michaelohagan6668 over 24 hrs actually, not a night. Sorry, my mistake.
@@johnriggs4929 Still sounds a heck of a lot. Do you have an Olympic swimming pool in your house? :D
Been doing all this for years, had to as my house is an end house built in the 1920"s and is exposed. Learnt all this quickly and been running a dehumidifier for years, it saves a lot on the heating bills.
Glad I'm not the only one obsessed by this subject 😂 my dehumidifier is running as I type..
Good work. You can do so much by just changing a few things, can't you. 👊
You forgot about most people using steam generators (Irons) some daily, huge amounts of moisture being emitted. Very informative contribution we just watched and subscribed to.
Just bought a dehumidifier yesterday and it's a total game changer. The clothes dry a lot quicker and it's amazing how much water the thing collects.
Any thing that dries the clothes faster, cheers
Which one did you purchase
Which brand and model did you buy?
Blyss WDH-316DB 16 L from Screwfix
Good tips, Charlie. We have a victorian terrace in Bristol. The place was riddled with damp before we moved in. Everything the previous owner had done did exactly the opposite and increased damp. So we unplugged the air bricks. Removed plastic paint from Bath stone and brickwork. Sorted and fixed new guttering. Installed ventilation tiles. Stripped any areas they tanked on inside walls. Lowered the ground levels to the front of property. Stripped carpets and underlays throughout (we use rugs now so it allows some air flow through the gaps in the floors). After a hot sunny summer the house is bone dry now and seems to be staying dry. I just open the windows for a couple of hours a day as I work from home. I put on a fleece and its a bit cold but it's a small price to pay to ensure the house stays dry.
Fantastic work Roody - spot on with everything. You must be chuffed you've turned it around. 👏👊
Too many people forget the build concepts were totally different back then with solid walls and the need to vent for fireplaces. Trying to make a solid wall home behave like a modern cavity wall home is an exercise in futility. Having said that, some modern homes are a little too airtight. There needs to be more regs RE passive ventilation or mandatory positive pressure venting.
mould only forms in stagnant wet air.
irony is humans actually benefit from some moisture in the air....
i use an evoprative cooler when i sleep (drawing in outside air, filtering it and hydrating it)... my skin isnt dry and itchy anymore, i sleep better for longer and feel more rested.
@@Jonathan_Doe_ that’s so interesting. I always always under the impression that older builds were able to contain heat thicker due to the thicker / perhaps stone walls. Is this not so? I learn something new every day
WHy not just run a dehumidifier to keep the moisture down to 50% for a couple of years? Would that not have dried it out too?
The internet needs more people like you Charlie! - Once again my mind has just been blown. Thanks for taking the time to make this, and sharing your knowledge, especially as saving £££ is more important than ever!
2 other very simple tips that cost nothing and actually save a little money, put a lid on any pans when cooking, this makes a big difference to the amount of vapour released but also means you don't require as much energy to heat the pan. Secondly, keep the lid of the loo down. This avoids the evaporation of the water from the toilet.
A couple of final bonus tips, dry up any washing up rather than leaving it on the draining board to air dry, as all that happens in that case is the moisture goes up into the air. Then put the damp cloth in the bathroom/toilet room to air dry where the moist air can be extracted by the extractor fan. Then finally, hang up any wet towels in the bathroom rather than leaving them in bedrooms etc in a heap on the floor. Again the moisture can then escape via the air vent.
It is amazing how much these things plus all the tips in the video, especially the Karcher after a shower makes. So much of damp and mould issues is down to lifestyle issues rather than anything else. Taking these simple measures can save you a lot of time and money in the long run as it avoids damage to your property.
All great tips!
To minimize steaming, is good use stove residual heat. Just before water start boiling cut power off.
Thank you 👍
You can defrost food fast in plastic bags in a bowl of water with a slow running cold tap running into it to keep the water warmer than freezing, water being a good conductor speeds up defrosting ten times over.
@@marklittler784 I use metal coffee cup and if it too hot, I use cold water bath for coffee to get temp down. It takes ten seconds.
This is what happened to me last winter. This apartment is maybe less than 8 years old. Decided to keep the heating bills lower so I kept the windows shut & wrapped up. About 2/3 months later I had condensation mould about 3 feet up the walls behind the wardrobes & beds. Literally had to throw half of the contents of my wardrobe in the bin & had to redecorate every room with anti damp paint. Won't be doing that again this winter. Thank you for this video
I am going through that now. My flat is about 10 years old too but 6 months of living here, I have ended up with mould behind wardrobes, moldy mattress and clothes. I've had throw away so much. How is it now for you? Any improvements?
Massive fan of the squigee after a shower. Also helps reduce limescale build up for those of us in hard water areas!
Exactly. I don't have a problem with limescale up in Worcester but used to big time when I lived in SE London (before my squeegee days!). I found diluted vinegar in a spray bottle very good for cleaning the glass.
I have a Karcher I use just like the one shown. Problem with it is that they need serious modification as unless used upright and moved up/down slowly, water can get into the motor area which then risks getting to the electronics. I have curved glass shower screen so have to use it sideways; on my third one I decided to get medieval with it before I started using it.
Water softener solved that problem for me, they are fantastic. Problem is I no longer use the squeegee after showers... Might do again after this video.
I have a flannel I dry myself with so keep the towel dry as pos
@@t-rex4211 good idea, up to now I tend to 'squeegee' myself down with my hands before towell drying, I might try your method.
I’m going to leave my curtains open tonight & see what happens in the morning 🥺 I’ll be back with my results tomorrow 😊
What happened
U can keep shut...just open window a little bit...tinny gap..
One thing I do that I don't think anyone else has mentioned in the comments, is to use a flannel in the shower to wash down & then at the end of the shower before getting out, squeeze out the flannel & use it to wipe off the majority of water left in your hair & on your skin wringing out the flannel as it becomes laden with water, it usually takes 3-4 wrings & takes 20-30 seconds to complete & you will be amazed at how much water this removes so that when you finish drying with a towel, the towel will be very much drier as it has probably had to remove only 20-25% off the moisture it would have had to do. Result, towel dry quicker & much less water vapor is released into the bathroom as towel dries. Yes, it's a little more time & effort, but worth it, buy a flannel from £1- £5 give it a try & it has cleaning benefits compared to just soaping down your body using your hands with a bar of soap or shower gel.
Totally agree. Been doing this for years, but my kids refuse to join in.
Good thinking Geoff. Makes a lot of sense. 👍
I have a compressor dehumidifier and it's amazing. The difference before and after getting it is immediately noticeable. The amount of water it takes out of the air is honestly amazing. I also keep a humidity meter in a prominent place so I can check when I need to run it. As others have mentioned it also gives off some heat too. So it's not wasting energy in winter. It comes in useful.
over a year ago i began sleeping in a room with fresh outside air being pumped in, filtered and hydrated.... (essentially a swap cooler/evaporative cooler
no more dry itchy skin, no more waking up with carpet mouth.
i sleep better, longer and wake feeling leagues better.
mould only forms in stagnant wet air. removing all moisture from the air is detramental to human health
Hello, what is a name of the product, machine? Thnx
@@MrVojtus Meaco MeacoDry Dehumidifier ABC Range 12L
@@VeeSeven700 I gave you a 👍 for sharing, but they're pretty expensive.
@@jimmyhackers8980 what sort of system is this please? Thanks
Thank you so much Charlie for this brilliant video. I've recently purchased a dehumidifier to reduce levels of moisture in the house and have been shocked at just how many litres of water it's collected in a couple of days!. House feels much warmer and drier already. Subscribed!
My memory as a kid was every morning my dad religiously going around the upstairs rooms of the house wiping the moisture off the windows with a shammy. Now... I do the same :)
This guy knows his stuff..couldn't believe when I bought a dehumidifier how much it extraction from the house..it was very enlightening.
Thanks for the information. Since the majority of energy wasted by a dehumidifier will be in the form of heat it's perhaps more efficient than it first seems because you are also slightly heating your space and offsetting heating costs by that small fraction (assuming your heating is on at the time).
Exactly! I should have mentioned that albeit that's more relevant for compressor dehumidifiers than dessicants.
A dehumidifier actually does even better than that, as when water vapour condenses on a surface it warms it slightly via latent heat (opposite process of when water evaporates off our skin, cooling it). Therefore a 200w dehumidifier will actually provide around 250w of heating to the space!
@@Ralphius86 I was immediately thinking that didn’t make sense. But I think you’re right providing you empty the water tank of cold water and remove it from the room down the sink you get all of the energy that was in that water vapour and put that into the air inside the room. It will come out the condenser side of the compressor dehumidifier.
Yes exactly, the air from my condensing dehumidifier is 1°C warmer than the surrounding air.
It takes a long time, but it does increase the room temperature noticeably (while drying my clothes).
A lot of people do not realise this when they talk about wasted energy in things like plug adapters and lights dotted around the house. In the Summer when your heating is off, yes, all the heat from these things is a complete waste of energy but, in the Winter, that is distributed heating and if you have a thermostat system (which everyone should), it can mean less heat needs to be provided by your main heating system. Sure, gas (or whatever better heating system you may have) is cheaper than electricity for heating but it is still useful and is not usually a huge amount. Also, any heat source sets up convection currents which will help air to move around e.g. adapters in sockets in the corners of rooms.
As we move into a new home...I am grateful to be seeing this.
You're welcome Adam. It's just a few steps but being aware of them makes a world of difference. Get some hygrometers 👍
Living in a freezing Victorian flat I have both bays open wide for as long as possible every day no matter what the temperature outside. Just ordered a Karcher to do the windows and shower after struggling for years with a squeegee and soggy cloths following your informed advice. Understanding the science is all, thanks to your video I now know why condensation forms and the mould that follows which formed everywhere until I religiously opened all the windows every day. Love all the other valuable little snippets from other commenters too. I will be doing these too. Thanks everyone!
Through draughts when opening windows helps even more.
Thank you for the information you have provided! This is the most helpful information I’ve ever heard from anyone to stop my damp house problems I had for over fifteen years. My windows had no condensation this morning when using the dehumidifier for the first time during the night!❤ My whole family was so happy!
We've been been banging our heads against the wall trying to understand how this happens as we thought we'd done everything right. That's the most informative video I've seen on this subject Charlie thank you so much !
Your content has been a great inspiration. I am wiser (if not slightly poorer) as a result 🤣
Thanks so much - very humbling you find my stuff useful. Just hope you're not in the market for an Ebac 3850. It seems they're out of stock everywhere right now 🙏
@@CharlieDIYte just bought an ebac 4000 series and I can t believe the difference it makes. I put it it on for a couple of hours in the evening... And now when we wake in the morning our windows are condensation free !
Just the content I was looking for as a fellow Brit suffering with high humidity and a hard to heat house. A massive thanks to you Charlie!
You're welcome. Thanks for the comment 👊
Yeah dry clothes in room with door shut windows open that gets sun, probably with heating off as well. Houses especially mattresses need airing daytime especially rooms your not using daytime.
@SmilerKyle. I live in a rented property and the house is always cold , the odd thing is in the summer it’s like a greenhouse despite having all the windows open . None of the doors leading outside are fitted correctly and neither are the double glazed windows . I asked the property owner to sort these issues out and was told to open all windows and doors with no heating . It was warmer outside in the winter than indoors . Sucks
@@marklittler784 I always pull back the sheets/ blankets on the bed after getting up, and leave the bed air for 20-30 minutes while starting breakfast. Then I make the bed without trapping in the moisture.
@@Lili-xq9sn Does it dry out that quickly though usually you need heat an electric blanket would help dry a mattress
Brilliant article, thank you. I am old enough to have lived in a house with no central heating and just a coal fire in the sitting room, the fire drew air in from outside via our rattley, ill-fitting doors and windows ( insulation - none, draught-proof strip made of foam sponge around the door or a copper strip). Frozen leaf patterns on the inside of the windows and getting dressed under the bed covers. Can’t believe we’re going back to those days. We have just used Wallrock thermal insulation fabric internally on two outside walls, what a difference, not too expensive a diy job either. Perhaps you should ask Liz Truss to put this out as a public information film!
Thanks Jane. Yes I also would get dressed under the bed sheets for the same reason, and water frozen in the tooth brush mug in the morning! You're right, insulation makes a massive difference. I insulated the internal walls upstairs and it's transformed the ability to heat each room.
I was born in communism growing up in a ramshackle house in the 80's with exactly the same: frozen toilets/pipes and windows frozen over (we used to call them 'ice flowers', a coal oven that needed to be set up in the morning and washing with just a hot water cloth... Today I actually benefit from learning as a kid how to maximise my (limited) resources, being practical and appreciate all the luxuries of the Western world.
Quality video Charlie. This the best and most concise explanation for a problem that has haunted us for years. We're now building a modern well-insulated home, which we're doing with a fabric first approach, so will be ensuring that we get the fundamentals right, but for many people this isn't an option. We are now entering the time of year where I have to go over the principles of condensation AGAIN with my Daughter, we do it every year. She will learn a lot when I force her to watch this video, maybe she needs to hear it from someone else.
Architect here: your internal walls are not built to have one side heated and other side cold, ie heating only one room. This will create condensation within the wall, which will lead to mould. The whole house/flat needs to be the same temp. Running a dehumidifier will help to a point, but there is also a cost to consider. Btw, the ideal air humidity is between 50 to 60%, above to below will make the timber in your house shrink/expand = not ideal to continue to have this much movement.
For ventilation, do as the Germans do, air for 20 to 30 mins twice a day. It's actually written into rental agreements.
This is very interesting. So many things I overlooked during my quest to banish returning mold.
You don’t need to be a big balllox Architect to know, don’t leave unused Rooms cold in the Winter, you basically just have heat migration from the heated rooms to the cold ones, it’s the Exterior Walls that are ‘hopefully’ insulated on any building, not the internal partitions.
Latest Skool of thought regarding Home Heating, is Air to Air Heat Pumps, with strict control of the moisture levels👍. What do you think of these apples dafty Architect??!!
@@TheDickPuller "Architect here..." (Stand to attention...) 😉
When airing, if a dehumidifier has been used and the outdoor humidity is say 85, will opening doors/windows not just allow damp air to enter?
@@TheDickPuller big ballox! 😂
… Dry your laundry in your bathroom with the door almost closed (due to the cable from dehumidifier) with dehumidifier on. It will dry quickly the clothes and the bathroom (around 2h depending on type of clothes, thicker might need longer time to dry up to 4h depending on the bathroom size). Very good video about condensation and dump …
You can take advantage of the condensation on windows as a way to dehumidify as long as you squeegee or vac the condensation off each day. It's got to help.
I watched a video about humidity some time ago - they likened the air to a sponge. The warmer the air gets, the bigger the sponge, therefore the more water it can hold (and of course the colder it gets, the smaller the sponge and the less water it can hold). Worked for me!
Nice analogy 👍
Very interesting, this is a problem I can hardly even imagine having in winter. Here in Sweden I have to keep an air humidifier working overtime just to keep my air humidity from dropping below 40% in winter. I wonder if this is to do with the way your houses are constructed or just an effect of British "winter" being almost all rain and next to no snow.
Most definitely the way houses are constructed. I am from the Netherlands and they have similar winters to where we live in the UK now (the south east), and many houses here have problems with condensation, where I barely ever hear of that in NL. Didn’t expect the humidity to be so low in Sweden!
@@maartjeramakers1572 It's interior humidity I mean. The outside has higher relative humidity, in the high sixties, but the relative humidity is relative to temperature and outside tempereture in winter is around 0 C here so when you let that cold air in and heat it to up 20 degrees the relative humidity drops like a brick.
I think it has a lot to do with the outside temperature. I've noticed that as soon the weather is dry and/or below freezing, the air in my apartment becomes dry so I have to run two humidifiers to keep humidity at 45-50%
No one is allowed to light a fire indoors anymore unless its specially approved wood. House build in uk is very poor standard.
best purchase i made this year a dehumidifier i was getting damp in my bedroom and got breathing problems all that stopped it
So, yeah, couldn't agree more. My mrs was complaining like mad about air being to dry however with automation I got the RH to 40 - 55 %, and things like living room / dining room / kitchen can drop to 7C overnight without any condensation and we're saving a ton in heating. Keep up the good work !
ps. fun fact - dehumidifiers: when extracting the humidity actually heat the place ! Yes there is an energy loss from the refrigeration unit, however the latent heat of evaporation is about 4 times as much when you condensate the water - net result is that your place is dry, but a lot warmer.
Thanks buddy. Yes I should have mentioned the benefit of the heating. 👍
After watching many of your videos over the past few weeks I decided to buy an Ebac 4000 series Dehumidifier. I have tried other brands in the past and none of them have worked. However, the Ebac is absolutely the answer to all of our condensation problems. Our bungalow has been on average 70% relative humidity so far this autumn/winter season. Same every year. It makes the place feel damp and cold all the time. The windows are constantly dripping wet with condensation in the morning and the bathroom ceiling sprouts mould (or mold depending on your preferred spelling). Since using the Ebac the RH is a constant 49% and absolutely no more wet windows or mould growth anywhere. Best of all, Ebac is a British company and all of their appliances are made in Britain. This has 100% cured our problem. So glad I found your channel, otherwise I would never have known about Ebac. The atmosphere in the house just feels so much healthier. No more horrible cold, damp smell. Keep up the good work 👍
Great video. We bought a Meaco dehumidifier - great purchase. Aswell as general dehumidifying it’s great for clothes drying - much better than the heated airers. Laundry mode aims to get to 35% and runs for six hours. Its maximum consumption is 240 watts so even at the new 34p per kw/h maximum rate it’s just over 8p per hour.
I've been using a floor standing dehumidifier to dry clothes but what I also do is run a large desk fan on the floor pointing at the washing, with the washing hung over an airer edge ways on relative to the fan you get a massive amount of airflow over the washing and it dries a lot quicker. The dehumidifier can then do it's job of drying the air.
May I ask which Meaco model you bought? we've been considering the new Arete because Meaco said it's better than their older platinum :) thanks
@@voodoomotion5855 we just bought the 25l version gotta say its brilliant, its dropped our house from 73 to 55 in just 3 days
@@djjluvv sounds like we definitely need it. Our new loft room is perfect but rest of the house gets cold and damp so easily. Sadly Argos no longer have them on offer, lucky to get them for such less than £300 but worth the money! Thanks for your reply
@@voodoomotion5855 i got mine for £300 worth it though, its just a never ending struggle lol.
What a brilliant video! We have started to implement changes to combat mould especially after we bought a new bed. Our old divan had lots of mould under it which we had been sleeping on for yonks🙈 we couldn’t smell it even until we started to strip it down when taking it out. We were very concerned…Our new bed now has room underneath it so air can move about-resisting the urge to store anything under it too! A wool duvet was a game changer to keep warm at night and now throw duvet off the bed in the morning to let it air for a few hours, gets rid of any trapped moisture in the bed. The urge to not make the bed immediately is hard to shake off lol. Hope it helps someone else sharing our story.
Thanks Charlie! Squigee is on board and hydrometer purchased…i love it when a plan comes together 💪
Thanks so much for that. Yes you've solved the bed problem with the ventilation, and as you say, with a plan in place you should keep any damp problems in check going forward 👌👊
I’ve had a Drimaster PIV system in every house, from a new build to a 1920s terrace and it’s made a massive difference each time. Highly recommended. Thanks for a great informative video!
Thanks. Good work installing a PIV wherever you've lived. So much love for them from you and loads of people who've watched my original video. 👍
Us too really helps
PIV fan is the answer. Fitted one years ago - brilliant.
Another great vid full of sound advice, thanks Charlie. The PIV we’ve installed has been the most effective measure we’ve taken to resolving the inherent damp problem in our 250 year old cottage. Ours is a Nuaire system and I can’t recommend it enough if you've got similar problems. We also use a Karcher to clean the shower. It’s effective, but they’re not long lived and Karcher’s after-sales service us appalling. There’s good internet advice on how to repair them by folk that have managed to resolve the poor reliability (usually down to electrics).
Thank god someone is finally talking sense. I've been screaming this for years and getting cheesed off with TH-camrs who ignore this number one point.
Hi Charlie, thanks for the video. We have a heat pump tumble dryer and I have some actual energy useage measeurements from it: a full towels load straight from the washing machine takes 0.9kWh of energy to run full cycle (to a standard drying setting), compared to an older Bosch condensing tumble dryer with the same load which took 1.75kWh. Of course with both of these the energy used turns into local heat, inside the house if that is where it is located, last winter I used to set our washing machine to run in the early hours then put on the tumble dryer first thing in the morning, to help with the early morning house heat up, which makes sense to some degree, but if you use mains gas (as we do) then it is worth considering that one kWh of electricity is likely at least three times the price of a kWh of gas. So my thoughts for this winter are: if we are going to put the tumble dryer on anyway then try to do so at a time when the heat will be useful, but don't let the 'bonus' heat factor in to the decision of whether to use the tumble dryer or not.
There is many things in life we do because we thinks it better but actually its the opposite, this is one of them, people avoid using 1KWH of electric to dry clothes and instead leave them to dry in a room with a window shut over 24 hours is going to add so much moisture into there property that when it comes to heating it will takes 8kwh of gas just to combat this.
my opinion is get a heatpump and use that, save money on the gas and also more importantly then the cost your HEALTH, high humidity will make you ill, its not worth the 40p saving in a kwh of electric.
We do everything mentioned here. Even have the window vac to do all the tiles. Amazing how much water that collects.
The Ultimate winner for us, is the 2x dehumidifiers with cloths drying mode which we dont actually use! Our desicant type dehuhmidifiers also warm up the air and reduces the need for main heating. Thumbs up from us, to Charlie.
We should also point out that we have 2x Pureair units that burn every virus, pollen, germ and dust particle which only use 50 watts per hour and add warmth to the rooms.
Fruit on the table is definately lasting "many weeks" longer which is supposed to be one of the plus points for these units. We agree with that point.
Hey, fantastic info, really needed this. 2 questions:
1. Should we close curtains in the winter or not, as the condensation is a lot. What about the heat lost from keeping them open at night?
2. Does heat leak out of the window gaps wasting energy and causing higher heating bills?
Thanks so much again, Mim
I'm confused about the curtains now too. I have also recently sew in a thermal liner into them too so whats the logic?
I think you've got to close the curtains to be honest. But get a window vac and vacuum the windows down every morning. It'll prevent mould forming and remove a lot of moisture that otherwise would have circulated back into the air.
Natalia you need to shut the curtains but get a window vac to remove all that condensation each morning 👍
@@CharlieDIYte thanks ever so, will defo look at window vacs. Any thoughts about the heat escaping through windows and using up energy and money? Really appreciate your help
Whole house Mechanical Heat Recovery Ventilation is the ultimate solution. Any serious house renovation which increases energy efficiency should have MVHR as part of the plan.
We did it and after a year of use and no other ventilation we have a toasty and dry internal home.
Thank you dear. As i told you once before, we seldom open our windows here or doors unless we are nearby because we have monkeys coming in and causing havoc. What we have done is we bought some air dehumidifiers and put them all over the house. They have sort of crystals(?) in the top and the moisture is drawn into the container, and believe me, theres lots of it…..and they arent very expensive which is a bonus. They dont run on electricity, they are stand alone containers….i can send you a photo if you like….but thanks for this helpful video…take care
It does take more energy to heat humid air, but humid air also holds more heat energy so the boiler would need to top up the heat less often than dry air
Great video, I was feeling awful for the last few months and had trouble sleeping and couldn't figure out why, then realised it started around the same time the weather was getting cold and I stopped opening any of my windows. Got a hygrometer and the humidity in my room was over 70%. Spent a few hours over next few days airing out my house, and most importantly cleaned all of the vents and trickle vents inside the house, it's a very old house and they were all fully blocked with dirt and mould basically. The difference in air quality since doing this is night and day, humidity is now around 55% and I'm back to feeling myself and being able to sleep again. Maybe a video on cleaning vents and trickle vents would help a lot of people out, if you haven't done that already. I used cleaning sprays and a water flosser which is probably a bit unconventional.
I didn’t really worry or even think about humidity until I started 3D printing. The humidity level directly affects the quality of your prints because the 3D filament sucks up the moisture. So off I went and bought a number of cheap humidity sensors to put around my house. I was amazed to see how the humidity fluctuated throughout the day. I have my tools on pegboards in my garage and I started to get worried that they may start to rust, I’m told that this could happen at 75% humidity. I now use damp free crystals in partial 3D printed homemade containers around the house to limit humidity. You. Would be surprised to see how much water is pulled out of the air in my garage every month.
Good work Ewen. I find crystals a bit of a faff - do you think they make enough of a difference?
I just dropped nearly 300 quid on an EBAC 18 dehumidifier. Mostly for drying rooms after DIY jobs like paint and plaster, but your vid is eye-opening.
You won't regret that 👌
It’s feels quite counterintuitive to open windows makes it easier to heat your home. But what you’ve gone through makes sense, thanks. Now just have to get the mrs and kids on side!
In our house condensation forms overnight, but 90% of this can be avoided by simply opening the windows for 5 minutes, fully, before going to bed. Then all the moisture from the day, can be zapped out of the house, quickly- warm air rises etc). We can test this with monitoring tools. it works. Best of all, upstairs quickly warms up again, as the walls are warm.
Great tip to open windows when cooking , in addition to extractor fan. I bet most people do not even consider this.
Wish there were simple Single Room Heat Recovery )SRHR) Systems that were smaller, they do not need to be 80% effective, to work. Compared to basically a hole in the wall, anything is better than nothing, especially if it stops cold wind (as mentioned in the video).
With many of us now working in sheds and timber buildings we need to keep air flowing on cold days and need to manage moisture, AND increases in Co2 caused by breathing. I have to sit with my window open, yep, even at minus 5 to ensure that I stay awake during the day. If I close the window my Co2 sensor, and humidity sensor goes mad after an hour.. (I do mean Co2 - there is zero heating in my garden office, I am the sole source of that, that and a computer). Any suggestions welcome, especially for thin walled buildings?
IR heats you not the air.
There is a gotcha with heat pump dryers. They need a minimum air temperature of about 10c to work. So you can't put them in unheated garages and out buildings.
Very helpful as always mate, are damp is getting very bad, time to sort it💪👍
The tragic death of the toddler in Manchester that was caused by mould spores really brings home the importance of your condensation videos.
David I was shocked by that news coverage over the last few days. Poor family 🥺
Probably drying washing inside without ventilation thinking the property is damp when really it's the way they're using it.
In a new build apartment we had once drying outside on the balcony was “forbidden”. They installed tumble driers but they can’t be used for everything as clothes are damaged so people would dry inside and as you said they were air tight and thus, masses of condensation and so many people had huge damp problems and entire flats needed to be re plastered. Badly built to be as warm as possible and no trickle vents But people also didn’t realise the need to ventilate either.
@@FuknNoName Yep, the activist group is called 'Insulate Britain' but given our climate, it should be 'Ventilate Britain'
Bad ventilation was one of the main reasons for the covid plandemic - locking people up inside was criminal but got the result the government wanted , it was never about saving lives and everything about escalating the problem to justify their solution and ultimate plan ! Very very sinister . Who suffered the worst with covid 🤔 , poor people , living in small damp properties , bad diets combined with bad quality air and what can you expect ! Like Charlie I can’t emphasise enough the need for better quality air in the home - living in a confined box full of toxic things and very little air changes is absolutely terrible , consider better ventilation with the best systems being MVHR .
We run our dehumidifier overnight when our electricity is cheap. It’s in our laundry room mainly but I put it upstairs or in the centre of the house every so often to do a purge on the moisture. Our tumble drier is a a heat pump machine and it is so cheap to use. 20p an hour during off peak!
This must be a UK thing, because in Canada where I live we actually buy humidifiers for use in winter to make the air more humid to feel warmer. We only use dehumidifiers during the warm months (unheated basements in winter can actually get too cold to operate dehumidfiers).
Thank you for posting this. I use my boat a lot during winter, it's full of cold surfaces, so the thing about moisture in cold air or the lack of it will be a game changer. It's also confirmed why the years she was simply left ventilated without dehumidifier were the driest. Going back to that and am going to seriously enjoy the savings £££.
Of course another big plus to all this is more ventilation is invaluable in the fight against Covid and all other airborne viruses, spores, etc too.
Good work. 👊
We use a Karcher to dry our shower after every use! But thanks for the other tips. Very useful.
Since seeing your original video when it came out, we got monitoring. Major change was a dehumidifier in our utility where we air washing on our old fashion airer. Certainly makes a massive difference, Clothes dryer quicker, and you can feel warmth in the room. I think the kids have nicked the squeegees from the bathrooms. Recommend buying a unit, we have a unit from Screwfix, it does a great job. Great stuff Charlie!!
Proud of you Graham. 👊 Brilliant work with the dehumidifier. I have local friends who had mould in their hall. I repainted it for them and I did a video on it. What I couldn't believe was they were hanging all their washing in a windowless utility next door. I told them about the massive problem they were creating - they had mould and rotting plasterboard - but unfortunately they're one of those couple who think they know best - and recently they complained to me that the mould has come back - kind of suggesting I hadn't painted the hall properly. What can you do 🤦🤷♂️
@@CharlieDIYte I have also changed valves on all radiators for the Drayton system. Hoping to keep control this winter. Stop showing ideas, costing a fortune!
@@Gaatyeo Looking for controls that allow 1/10 of a degree increments. We have a Nest room stat and interested in the Honeywell evohome that allows each room to independently be heated at separate temps and or to schedule. The main problem we have and dislike is the 1+ degree in temp variance that the heating system does. We have a condensing combi gas boiler with nest room stat and recently relocated it to ensure it better controls temps. Things are better since. So the problem is when we set temp to 21° it then will heat that room to 21.5° (and probably need that until we have something similar to evohome) then not heat up again until it drops to just below 20.5° and if set room temp for nest to 20.5° then the low swing is 19° Celsius which can be cold in an old drafty property. We have no problem with mould whatsoever or ventilation but because of the drafts lower temps are not bearable. It would feel like having windows open in every room if we set nest room stat below 20.5. I knew someone that had a Drayton room stat that allowed 10th of a degree temperate controls but I am not sure if this allows the heating temp to remain stable. Their heating would come on and remain more stable within precise narrow window whereas our temperatures make it uncomfortable to have a 1 plus degree swing.
I don't understand why room stats are not programmed to just maintain the temp they are set to rather than have the huge high and low swing. At the current time we have boiler water (radiator water) temp set to 64° Celsius which is ok but in colder winter weather we set this to 80° Celsius because it just can't keep up keeping a cold drafty property warm for 12 large double radiators. We have two mostly unused rooms with TRV valves set to heat up to 16° Celsius with no mould issues. Garage has a dehumidifier which gets loads of water out each day due to single wall bricks and a heater set to come on at 6° Celsius. Just wish there was a solution to the peaks and valleys swing temperatures. Not only uncomfortable but also not economical and we have TRVs on every radiator and even if we did get the Honeywell evohome I think we would still have the temperature swings. How to avoid this I wonder...
Looking at this I glad I live in Gauteng, South Africa. We have no electricity from government at time but we have so much sun that solar is working like a charm and we don’t have humidity or extreme cold weather. I used to live in Germany and cannot imagine how to survive in that weather without heating
Ah, if only! Yes the solar generation is a bit rubbish right now. Good to hear from you from SA 👊
Watched this and went straight out and bought a dehumidifier for my daughter for her home. Great advice here, especially as people won't be heating their homes up as much due to the steep energy price increases.
Don't dehumidifiers cost a shit ton of energy though?
@@hrdstyldncngisbst no. 290w, plus release warm, dry air....result!
I installed a DryMaster and I am not kidding when I say it stopped condensation overnight. Highly recommended.
Exactly…my father taught me everything about ventilation and harbouring damp air in the house which WILL create mould . ESPECIALLY the DO NOT dry wet clothes indoors or on rads and open a window to shower. Wet air in the home that can’t escape takes longer to heat the home because any heat has to work hard to dry the dampness first ! It’s just makes sense … 👍👍
He was a smart guy 👌👊
Excellent piece as usual Charlie. Just sat down for a tea break from the ongoing renovations of my cottage, where damp is an issue, have reduced the problem significantly with windows ajar especially when showering. My dehumidifier is a little hungry on energy but will have to use it.
My biggest issue is to get my wife to comply with the rules😂 Many thanks👍
Thanks James. 👊 You have that problem as well. I've told her so many times not to fill the kettle to the top when we're just making two mugs I bought a 2 mug 600w kettle on eBay the other day and it will be replacing that one you see in the vid. Plus I have a silent rebellion on the shower window point. I think they open it when they're done, to placate me! Great work on the house. Sounds like you're getting there!
@@CharlieDIYte I bet you have had more than a few complaints that she is cold!
I have the same issue, except in my house it's getting my husband to comply, as I am the enforcer.
Particularly with the kettle - it drives me mad!
@@janetwilliams2835 i have to monitor the lights on in the house as my hubby thinks we live in Blackpool. The times I've come home to a house with all the lights on and no one in. Kettle too, filled almost to the top for 1 drink.grrrrr I definately need to get 1 of those kettles.
@@CharlieDIYte What about a flask Charlie and less electricity too 🙂
Thank You Charlie, never had much idea about the moisture in the conservatory and now after watching your brilliant video we will be purchasing a dehumidifier, 👍
Shower every 3rd day cuts that humidity by 2/3. Once a week shower is fantastic reduction. Multiplied by 2 - 4 people in the home... Think of the energy saving, not to mention the time lost to vacuuming windows.
I'd rather be clean.
@@thomashenderson3901 😂 Yes, but you can still be clean if you have a strip-wash at the bathroom sink in between showers. I can remember when virtually no-one had showers and baths were a once-a-week event (little kids usually shared) 😊
@@lindaj5492 True enough, I used to...
Great video as usual. Only issue i have is opening windows in winter is counter productive. Our climate in winter offers an external air with 80-90% humidity. I find opening windows in winter makes things worse.
Dehumidifiers are a good piece of kit if you use them right. In a heavily insulated home the air is fairly stagnant, so if you add a fan to the mix, it helps push the moist air around your home and give it a chance to get caught in your dehumidifier.
I have experimented and found that my dehumidifer is more than twice as effective when I use a fan. I use a Dyson type fan where there airflow isn't that noticeable, just enough to get the air moving.
Thanks Chris. That makes sense. 👍
Don't all dehumidifiers have an integrated fan?
Yes a small weak fan that draw air in from a small radius around the unit. If you have a larger fan to push the air around the room your dehumidifier will have access to much more untreated air and collection will be vastly improved. Also if you use a fan it pushes moisture off surfaces into the air for treatment.
@@Christopher_T_Paul Wow, that makes real sense, never thought about it like that before
Thank you for sharing this information. I’ve learned a lot.
Another big culprit for condensation in the house is cooking with no lids on the pans.
I haven't watched the video yet but each year Charlie always takes on the moisture. Can't wait to watch it, I wonder x years on if he's still asking his family to open the window after using the bathroom and them telling him no lol
I've got one of those karcher things, the amount of water you clean up is mind boggling
The Karcher window vac is utterly useless for cleaning windows so ours is permanently on bathroom duty and I do try to dry the shower after use.
I think this is more for places like the Pacific Northwest and the British Isles. The Midwest, where I live, are so cold and dry, the humidity is around 20% inside.
No mould issues for you then, luckily? Do you have insulation on external walls?
We all can have mold issues. And insulation helps even in tropical climates to keep out the heat. From what a Malaysian born person I know has said, they keep the AC on all the time.
Your "Environment" advice was a forehead-slap-game-changer realisation for me and my sopping wet condensation window problem in my old stone cottage
...makes so much sence, once pointed out to you 🙄 ...thank you 🙏🏻😁
So glad to hear that - that's what I'm here for 👊 You just get a Karcher. Game changing! Could also be a PIV install would do the trick?
I have the same Ikea squeegee x 3! It gives me such a sense of satisfaction to see all the water go down the drain instead of into the air. Plus, I have definitely gotten much quicker with the squeegee since starting with it. I wonder if a visual of how much air can hold at different temperatures would be helpful.
You and me both! Yes I should have included a visual. I think there might be one in that original video.
My conservatory ceiling used to be dripping every morning. I have my Meaco now, on a timer 4-8 am, and no more condensation.
Great work Keith. 👌
In my experience I'm usually struggling to keep the air moisture high enough to be comfortable during winter. Literally, running a humidifier 24/7 throughout the winter months. As someone with bad sinuses, air moisture levels makes a massive difference to me.
Sorry to hear that Susanna. Is that in the UK?
Same here in a wooden building, in Norway
@@CharlieDIYte Mines too dry all winter too as most houses here in Ohio. I'm puzzled as to why you have high humidity in the winter. 🤔
@@dennykeaton9701 The UK has a maritime climate, it is humid all year round. I'm guessing Ohio has a continental climate.
Nantucket or Orlando would probably be more like us
@@juliantheapostate8295 Ahh ok. Thanks for explaining. 👍
Thanks for recommending Karcher, I bought one on Friday, excellent product, bathroom does look & feel dry.
Good work 👌
Don't know why yt recommended this video to me. Alberta is so dry if I don't run a humidifier my skin cracks and bleeds, static shocks when I touch things. But I always like to learn. Maybe one day this knowledge will come in handy. Cheers
Hi Anne, not sure either but thanks for getting in touch. Humbled my video has reached you in your beautiful country!
Charlie, do a secondary glazing install video on your secondary glazing. You can get units which are magnetic. Would help with your heat loss massively!
Well done Charlie, fantastic explanation. I always learn a lot from watching your videos, thank you! 🙂
We run a couple of dessiccant type dehumidifiers in our house during the Winter months, one upstairs, the other downstairs, they have the benefit of adding a little background heat too
Good work. Drain offs so they don't need emptying would be excellent too.
LoL! I am that other guy with an Ikea squeegee. In fact I have one spare. I religiously wipe down after every shower, esp. as en-suite (cubicle). Furthermore, after doing this and leaving extractor on for another 10 mins I use the Ikea little sprayer bottle for plants with v.diluted bleach to give a quick "squeege" in corners of the shower and the squeegee itself. You would not believe the results: two years from resealing and cleaning and not a spot of mould or black mark anywhere.
That’s so ridiculously ott, no one should have to squeegee the shower, get a proper shower fan
I have the same IKEA squeegee, of you squeegee every time it really cuts down on the amount of cleaning you have to do too. Limescale doesn't really build up and you just have to give it a wipe over once a week to keep it sparkling. No scrubbing at orange marks. I use a daily shower spray too, I just spray the head and valve and a spray on the tray. It just breaks the surface tension of water in any nooks and crannies allowing it to run off.
I used to really hate cleaning the shower but now Its so easy I don't mind
I might try the diluted bleach trick! I squeegee after every shower, but still get a bit of mould over time
We do too!
We do too. And as others have said it stops scale on the glass and a quick wipe of the chrome plumbing with a micro fibre cloth keeps the shower like new. All of this takes
Winter in Canada when it is well blow freezing the air gets too dry. Love hanging the laundry to raise humidity. 🇨🇦. Try ceiling fans as well. Lived in the tropics. There we had mould issues
Thanks Deborah - love those insights. 👍
Really interesting video, Charlie. You mentioned that opening the window doesn't let damp air in. I live in a very damp part of the UK with far more misty/rainy days than dry ones. When I open windows on those days, the relative humidity readings on my indoor hygrometers rise. Does that sound normal?
Yes. He explained that absolute amount of moisture that the air can hold is dependent on its temperature. Colder air can hold less water. So the colder air that you let in air will hold less water, but its relative humidity is higher because it's holding more water relative to its temperature. It's closer to the maximum that it can hold. Soon as you close the window and heat the air, the relative humidity will drop, and the absolute amount of water in the air will be less. Or so I understood!
@@hairyclassics1789 You explained it perfectly - that makes sense now, many thanks!
Had a PIV system installed about a week ago.
What a difference ...amazing.
And I didn't even install it in my hallway....it's in my kitchen. Condensation pretty much disappeared over about 3 days and I've barely noticed the house being colder.
Ah, brilliant - really glad to hear that. If you can though switch it off when you're cooking so as not to pummel that vapour from cooking around the house. 👍
@@CharlieDIYte extractor fan above the hob and window typically opened a crack when creating a lot of steam.
I haven't switched off the PIV at all yet....hadn't really intended to. The biggest problem with condensation I had was in the morning but that's pretty much all gone now. I'm genuinely surprised at how quickly and effectively the PIV has worked.
Though it may seem counter-intuitive, Exchanging the air by opening all doors and windows wide, even in the winter for just 5 minutes, is also a good idea a couple of times a day. This can reduce the moisture content by up to 10% very quickly, and the air temperature will only drop a degree or two, though the drier air will heat up again quickly, especially as interior surfaces (walls, floors) remain warm.
I agree Jeremy 👌
What about if it is raining or freezing?
So after watching all your videos on this we have been using a window vacuum for a couple of months that helped with our condensation issues but we finally pulled the trigger on a PIV and it is a game changer. After 2 days there was visibly less condensation after a week the upstairs walls that were always sopping wet after the four of us showered are now dry. It's seriously amazing...
Well done installing that. There's so much love for PIVs in the comments on my channel. 👌👏
I'm definitely part of the squeegee crew - I think it's fairly normal to do the glass screen but I do feel a bit mad doing the walls and floor. But as you say, it does feel like no-one was ever there about 10 minutes later. Question regarding drying clothes: you said opening the window in the room where the clothes are hanging is ideal, but is there no impact from the temperature of the room? The room will be much colder so wouldn't the clothes take longer to dry?
I know what you mean. I think you have to experiment with what works best - maybe experiment with opening the window just enough for air circulation/ moisture escape but the best thing you can do is get a dehumidifier. Then you don't even need to open the window. It will dry your clothes beautifully in a couple of hours without the need for a heated airer and the cost will be minimal.
Those little humidity catchers you can get fron the pound shops really show you how much water can be in thr house. I have them in the bathroom and rooms that are not being used much and they really work well for those on a budget
Like these? th-cam.com/video/LhRcg9t8C5M/w-d-xo.html As you say, they're a good indicator but they won't solve any humidity problems you've got.
I don't think I have ever seen a product with so much positive feeback as the PIV system. I installed one and followed all the instructions (soffit vents, sealant around light fittings etc) but it did absolutely nothing for damp or condensation. I was gutted.
this is why i fitted a nuiaire drymaster system in my property, thoughts Charlie. Positive energy input !!
Cracking video Charlie. Thanks for all the really useful info and explanations. It's really helpful to have this reminder now so that I can make sure the damp doesn't form rather than trying to deal with the fallout in a few months time!!
Nice one 👍
Really good vid. I bought a karcher specifically for our shower and religiously dry it all down after use. Will be opening our kitchen window onto the latch from now on after seeing this vid. Thanks. 👍
If you leave your windows on the first latch you effectively create a cold spot where water will condensate which might cause the growth of mold. Better to open the windows fully for around 5 minutes several times a day to get rid of excess moisture. Even better if you can create a through draughts.
There’s another post from an architect saying that Germany has landlord / tenant legislation requiring tenant to open windows for certain amounts of time several times a day (guess not enforced when tenants are on holiday?!).
Very good two good tips for me and I'm a retired joiner so we learn something everyday alright .
Thanks Joseph. I always say that a trade who's always open to learning is clearly very good at his job. 👊
Don't agree with the outside air being dry even when it's wet! Only applies if you heat it! Case in point an unheated house with a dehumidifier will stay fairly dry with doors and windows shut but leave the door open even for 5-10 minutes and the dehumidifier will have to work to remove the moisture.
Also the moisture in that air will come to an equilibrium with the fabric of the building meaning you will get mould (day/night/solar gain temp swings leading to condensation). Also if its wet and mild outside which the UK often is, even in winter, you can't heat the air enough to change the relative humidity to an acceptable level unless you are going to keep your house at 20C constantly which people can't afford to do. Also the moisture in the fabric of the building will be released as the temperature rises, buffering the humidity.
Long and the short of it is you are going to need to remove moisture or heat the house, or both to avoid damp.
Make use of solar gain, allow rooms to heat up and crack open a window/vent once warm, shut again before things cool down.
Mild and wet outside, try to keep things shut up. Still use extractors for cooking/bathrooms. It should be fairly economical to use the heating on a day like this and it will lower relative humidity.
Cold and dry outside you are going to get condensation on windows etc. A window vac is probably a very sensible in this case. In a draughty damp house you could get 100ml per window and its cheaper than running a dehumidifier. You will have to have some heating on so maybe just set the thermostat 1 or 2 degrees lower and use a spare duvet. Maybe heat one room at a time.
It's a bad situation if you can't afford to heat the house (or the house is hard to keep warm).
I spent last winter in thermals and blankets/sleeping bags and that was with the heating on!
I have a hygrometer and dehumidifier (that eBac one). Sometimes I open windows and the humidity drops for a short period, then increases. And various other things happen. But opening the windows does not consistently lower overall humidity in my home all the time. I tend to keep windows closed so humidifier can do it's work efficiently on auto all the time. Will do some more experimenting. Quality of health has improved significantly after getting dehumidifier and leaving on auto, I bought it for drying clothes.
Great work Will, buying the dehumidifier. Opening the windows is really a resort for people who are generating a lot of moisture with no means of allowing it to escape. As you rightly say, if you've got a dehumidifier it operates best with the windows shut. 👌
The wiping down of the shower screen and walls is so essential. Takes 1 min, do it!
Exactly 👊
I live in a 3 storey house. Have always dried the bathroom walls after baths & showers & agree within minutes of drying and with an open window you can't tell that bathroom has been used.
I dry my clothes in winter on a pull out line on the top floor landing, it's the warmest place in the house. I shut all the doors up there and open the window. It's done me and family well for 30+ years and no damp 🙏