Today’s fascinating facts are about condensation.
Fascinating?? you say. Yes indeed
Many people feel that after having new double or triple glazing they wont see any condensation in the room. This is not necessarily the case and we’re going to consider why.
Firstly what is condensation? It is the visible sign of a water saturated atmosphere, so a warm room has a higher saturation point and we’re less likely to see evidence of the water in the atmosphere, this doesn’t mean its not there. Visualise what happens when you boil a kettle, you see the steam but then it disappears, where? Into the atmosphere. The warmer the room is the more water the atmosphere is able to hold.
However boil the kettle near a window and the water will stick to the colder surface as a mist or even as droplets depending on how cold the glass is. So imagine an unheated room, even with double glazing, its saturation point is a lot lower, in other words the atmosphere cannot hold as much moisture as a warm room so water droplets will form on the cold surfaces. This can be on walls, paint work and of course glass.
Some sources of water vapour in a house are:
- Breathing: two sleeping adults produce about a litre of moisture in eight hours.
- Cooking: steam clouds can be seen while cooking, this steam is then absorbed into the atmosphere.
- Washing up: we get the idea
- Wet clothes, Bath time and Laundry: major source
- Heaters: Gas and paraffin
- Indoor plants: a significant source of water vapour
- New property: This is fascinating! The materials used in constructing a new 3 bedroom house can absorb about 7000 litres of water during construction, as it dries out it mainly enters the indoor atmosphere.
So the air surrounding us contains water but its invisible, it becomes visible when the air reaches saturation point and touches a surface that is at a lower temperature than itself, thus condensation is formed.
Fascinating Facts!
Next time we will consider how to cope with condensation so it doesn’t become a problem.
