Reducing Humidity and Preventing Window Condensation

CRYSTAL: I have a block home and I have aluminum double-pane windows and during the winters I wind up with so much moisture on my windows that it actually forms in puddles on my windowsills.TOM: Oh, no.CRYSTAL: It’s a nightmare. It would actually take a full-sized towel on each window to dry it off daily.TOM: How old is your house?

CRYSTAL: We built it in ’94.

TOM: It sounds to me like the thermal pane windows are not doing their job because if they were the glass would be much warmer and you wouldn’t be getting condensation. So the solution here is twofold. The expensive solution is to replace your windows.

CRYSTAL: Right.

TOM: The least expensive way to try to reduce moisture is to try to stop some of the humidity from building up in the house.

CRYSTAL: OK.

TOM: First of all, outside the house look at the drainage conditions at the foundation perimeter. Make sure that the soil slopes away from the wall and the gutters are extended away because that moisture that builds up outside the house will show up as excessive humidity inside. Check all the venting inside the house – and this is the bath vents and the kitchen vents. And thirdly, you know, you have a perfect home to use what’s called a whole-home dehumidifier in. A whole-home dehumidifier gets installed into the HVAC system and actually takes humidity out of the entire house and it’s more effective than an air conditioner at doing that; although it uses the same set of ducts. Aprilaire makes a really, really good one that takes out like I think – is it 90 pints of water a day?

LESLIE: Mm-hmm, and especially in Florida. You’re dealing with such a high-moisture situation.

TOM: Yeah.

CRYSTAL: OK, thank you so much for your help.

TOM: You’re welcome, Crystal. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.