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Are your windows wet on winter mornings?

 

 

Are you tired of waking up on the cold winter mornings, to find that your windows are fogged up and in some cases, have ice on

the bottom corners? Do you have mold growing at the base of your windows?  Is the wood trim swelling, or your paint cracking because of this moisture?

Interior condensation of your windows, when the glass that is inside your home is wet,is very common here in Southern Ontario in the winter, and there are many things you can do to remedy the issue.

Please note, if your windows have condensation BETWEEN the panes of glass, this is another issue and you can find out how to fix internal window glass condensation here.

1. Turn Down your Humidifier

You might notice condensation in your bathroom, kitchen, or nursery. In the nursery this problem is often caused by a humidifier, which many parents use. If you use a humidifier in any part of your home (including the humidifier that works with some furnaces), you can try turning it down. As a result, the humidifier will release less moisture into the air, which will hopefully reduce condensation.  The standard recommendation when the mercury hits freezing, is to reduce your humidifier on your furnace to 30%.

2. Run Bathroom and Kitchen Fans

Use your bathroom and kitchen fans every time you cook or shower. Showering and cooking releases a lot of moisture into the air, and sometimes this moisture cannot escape from your house easily. The exhaust fans in your kitchen and your bathroom help remove this moisture from the air. You want to run the fans for about 15 to 20 minutes after you shower or cook.

3. Circulate the Air/Remove the screens

Circulating the air can also help reduce the condensation on your windows. So, use your ceiling fans even in the winter. You want the fans to rotate in a clockwise direction to push warm air off of the ceiling back down to the floor.  If you have California shutters or blinds/curtains on your windows, keep them open as much as possible, and even raise blinds a little over night, to reduce the warm air being trapped behind them.  Remove the screens from all operating windows.  Keep your furnace fan running during the day.

4. Open Your Windows when showering/cooking

We recommend upon waking, to open your blinds, curtains or shutters, and if it isn’t too cold, you can open your windows. This will release some of the warm, moist air that is trapped in the house.  If you do a lot of cooking, you will want to have a fan on, and a window open while you cook.

5. Raise the Temperature

Raising the temperature of the windows will reduce the condensation on them. Condensation occurs when warm air hits a cold surface (the window). Think about taking a cold drink out of your fridge on a warm day. The surface of the can immediately gets wet. In order to raise the temperature of your windows, you can raise the temperature of the house slightly.

6. Exterior Caulking

When the exterior caulking on your home is older and cracked, it allows cold air in behind the exterior pane of glass, making the interior pane colder.  Removing the original caulking, filling in the voids with foam backer rod, and recaulking helps make your home more energy efficient, and increases the temperature of the interior pane, making it less susceptible to sweating.

7. Move Your Plants or Fish Tanks

Plants release moisture into the air, so if you have a number of plants by your windows, moving them to a different place can help reduce condensation on the windows.  Same goes with aquariums – if you have a few, they will be adding humidity to the air.

8. Add a Dehumidifier

You can put a humidifier in the basement and on a main floor near the kitchen to reduce humidity in the air.

9. Air Exchanger

An air to air exchanger is another fairly easy way to reduce moisture, and therefore condensation, in your home. An air exchanger brings in fresh air from the outside and sends indoor air to the outside. These machines remove pollutants from your home as well as removing the moisture. Contact an HVAC technician in your area to coordinate having one installed onto your furnace.

10. Make sure all windows are in proper operating order

Consider having your operating windows checked to ensure they are working well, not allowing excessive cold air into your home, exterior caulking is sound, and all hardware is in proper working order.  We can coordinate an inspection for you, and all inspection costs are removed from any work done on the windows.