Condensation...now some mold

Our house gets pretty bad condensation in the winter. Most of the upstairs bedrooms get a fair amount of water on them and the window ledge in our bedroom sometimes has a small pool of water on it, not helped I'd have thought by as the radiator is below the window so warm one side of curtains/cold the other.

To help we open a window when showering which generates a shit load of steam, furkin horrible in this weather and drives me nuts thinking how much we pay to heat the room only to let the cold air in We also mop/hoover (special hoover for the job) the water up on all the windows. I did buy a dehumidifer and it does pull a fair bit of water out of the air but without leaving it on pretty much all day we are fighting a losing battle and I'm not sure how much this will cost to run long term. We leave the bedroom windows open a tiny crack to help with ventilation.

Yesterday Mrs was moving furniture about in the living room and discovered 3 spots of mold. 2 small ones by back patio doors, 1 bigger one behind an armchair to the right underside of the front window in the corner.

The house is a 70's house and there are no airvents in the walls at all, so I'm guessing ventilation could be a big source/problem. Should I get some put in or open windows more? Will this help as I'm guessing there is a fair amount of mosture in the air outside at the moment.

Heating we have our heating set on about 21C but thermostat is in the living room so this room is always warmer than rest of house. Should I have it up higher to try and heat the windows/walls more? Does heating make much of a difference?

Drying clothes - we do this a fair amount as we have a 9 month old so our washing loads having increased about 10 fold this winter, not much we can do there really.

What are my best options for preventing this?

Ta in advance

Emigrate?

Argos, dehumidifier.

The house needs to breathe, that clearly isn't happening. Air bricks maybe, windows ajar maybe, even internal doors more open. Drying clothes is a ball ache, presume you are using a tumble dryer? Get a (condensing?) better one or use an old style ceiling type drying rack (hot air rises etc). Modern houses have poor circulation. A few containers of sand/salt around the place will draw some moisture from the air, as of course will dehumidifiers. Wear thicker type jumpers or shirts and turning the thermo down will help. Plus you'd be surprised how much clothing you can dry outside on most days.

Originally Posted by LondonDRZ

Argos, dehumidifier.

Ta but got one. I was just concerned with leaving it on constantly.

Originally Posted by rockjock620

presume you are using a tumble dryer?

No, we'd love one but nowhere to put one at present. Mainly using a heated airer. But still causes a fair amount of mosture I would have thought.

Do clothes dry outside well in the winter?

Originally Posted by Supermofo

No, we'd love one but nowhere to put one at present. Mainly using a heated airer. But still causes a fair amount of mosture I would have thought.

Do clothes dry outside well in the winter?

After they freeze you can generally just shake the ice off..

Originally Posted by Supermofo

Our house gets pretty bad condensation in the winter. Most of the upstairs bedrooms get a fair amount of water on them and the window ledge in our bedroom sometimes has a small pool of water on it, not helped I'd have thought by as the radiator is below the window so warm one side of curtains/cold the other.

To help we open a window when showering which generates a shit load of steam, furkin horrible in this weather and drives me nuts thinking how much we pay to heat the room only to let the cold air in We also mop/hoover (special hoover for the job) the water up on all the windows. I did buy a dehumidifer and it does pull a fair bit of water out of the air but without leaving it on pretty much all day we are fighting a losing battle and I'm not sure how much this will cost to run long term. We leave the bedroom windows open a tiny crack to help with ventilation.

Yesterday Mrs was moving furniture about in the living room and discovered 3 spots of mold. 2 small ones by back patio doors, 1 bigger one behind an armchair to the right underside of the front window in the corner.

The house is a 70's house and there are no airvents in the walls at all, so I'm guessing ventilation could be a big source/problem. Should I get some put in or open windows more? Will this help as I'm guessing there is a fair amount of mosture in the air outside at the moment.

Heating we have our heating set on about 21C but thermostat is in the living room so this room is always warmer than rest of house. Should I have it up higher to try and heat the windows/walls more? Does heating make much of a difference?

Drying clothes - we do this a fair amount as we have a 9 month old so our washing loads having increased about 10 fold this winter, not much we can do there really.

What are my best options for preventing this?

Ta in advance

The heat will vapourise the water content in your house and make it more mobile, you can either get it out of the house or let it cool and re-condense somewhere else in the house. The clothes are banging out a tonne of water, they have a large surface area and are probably overwhelming your houses ability to get rid of it. Get a cheap condensing tumble drier instead. To dry the place, get it good and hot but leave the moisture somewhere to go.

This is just from experience in the yurt, heat definitely lowers humidity, in the yurt it can go from 70% unheated, then after an hour it'll drop to 25% with the heater on, that's too low but you get the picture. Mobilise it with heat then move it around so it doesn't gather in one place.

We have for the same problem.
I am going to fit some window trickle vents and see how much this helps. I have had the windows cracked open and taped gap up until it is similar to what a trickle vent gives, this seems to have helped stop a lot of condensation on the windows.

When I moved into the current 70's house in the late 90's it had old wood windows, an air vent in the living room for the back boiler, air bricks and big draughts through the door surrounds. Condenssation wasn't really a proplem.

Over the years, we've been encouraged to seal the house with draught excluders and double glazing. The air vent let so much cold air in that it got covered up and a CO detector was fitted to excuse the guilt of covering it up. When I had the free cavity wall insulation done, they also filled the holes in the air bricks up with silicon sealant.

The house is warmer but like you, there is nowhere for the moisture to go, so we get exactly the same problem. I've just settled to put up with it rather than let all the heat out that we've made such an effort to trap in.

Originally Posted by Supermofo

No, we'd love one but nowhere to put one at present. Mainly using a heated airer. But still causes a fair amount of mosture I would have thought.

Do clothes dry outside well in the winter?

Put the clothes you are drying in the bathroom then, at least that should cope with moisture better and could a tumble dryer fit in there...................clothes do dry out side in winter but as I said it depends on the day. It's more of a faff but you can't have everything.

Originally Posted by Supermofo

I'm guessing there is a fair amount of mosture in the air outside at the moment.
...What are my best options for preventing this?

Fundamentally it is a ventalation issue.
To answer the 1st point, there will be almost no moisture in the outside air at the moment...cold air can hold less water than warm air.
This helps with drying things outside, even at low temperatures.
If moisture is condensing on the windows you could look at putting double glazing film (the cling-film looking stuff) which helps a lot, although you still need to sort out some ventilation.
21C seems very high - most reckon 18-19 for living spaces - put a jumper on!
The dehumidifier is going to cost a fortune to run the amount you do now. Better to spend the money on heating the room but with more ventilation.

If you have damp in the house you either have water getting in, or water vapour that should be getting out is being stopped by inadequate ventilation.

Not blown away by dehumidifiers at all and personally feel they are a sticking plaster at best. They mask the symptoms but don't fix the root cause.

Just my thought, but isn't adding anything like the double glazing film just going to move the problem to the next coldest surface, probably the walls. I suggest getting ventilation sorted is the best idea.

Ventilation is absolutely the best idea but the amount of condensation isn't fixed. It will be higher with greater area of cold surface. Even if you have good ventilation you can still get condensation on cold windows before the water has a chance to be vented out of the house.