[Greenbuilding] Airtight windows

Sacie Lambertson sacie.lambertson at gmail.com
Sun Oct 28 17:30:41 CDT 2012


thanks for the suggestion Corwyn but we have about 50 windows in this
house, all of them 9 year old Pellas (the only manufacturer who would make
my custom sized windows within my time frame--a long story here).  I can't
possibly imagine building storms for the inside of these.

Our indoor humidity is within the suggested range.

S

On Sun, Oct 28, 2012 at 5:24 PM, Corwyn <corwyn at midcoast.com> wrote:

> On 10/28/2012 1:20 PM, Sacie Lambertson wrote:
> Our windows are starting to condensate at the base on the
>
>> inside.  Many of you have suggested this is the penalty of winter.
>> Isn't there anything I can do about it?
>>
>
> See my previous suggestion for interior storm windows.
>
> Here's the basics of when you will get condensation.  When the dewpoint
> temperature of the inside air is a the same as (or greater than) the
> temperature of the inside surface of the windows (or anything else in your
> house), that surface will condense water.  So in order to avoid
> condensation you need to either lower the dewpoint of the air inside, by
> reducing the humidity, or increase the temperature of the inside surface of
> the windows.
>
> Whether the humidity is too high is a matter of perspective and some
> controversy.  Get a humidity gauge and measure what yours is.  Generally
> somewhere in the 40% - 60% range is recommended, but balance is between
> being too dry (and the dry throat and colds that that produces) and being
> too wet and the mold and mildew (and the allergies that aggravates), so
> decide for yourself.  That said, lowering the humidity will reduce the
> condensation (and vice versa).  One of the things we generally see is that
> as people increase the air tightness of their house they need to go from
> worrying about too low humidity to worrying about too high humidity.  At
> that point, you are probably in the place where you will need to have
> supplemental ventilation (for fresh air reasons), and an HRV will take care
> of the humidity issue.
>
> The other way is to raise the temperature of the glass.  Traditionally
> this was done by putting the central heating output right under the windows
> so that hot air washed over the surface warming it up.  Now, the solution
> is generally to increase the insulation value of the windows. The interior
> storm windows are a cheap way to do this, adding about R-2 to a window for
> about $1.50 per square foot (if you make them yourself), I make them for
> around $4.00 per square foot.  Raising the temperature of the glass will
> also increase comfort levels (even at the same air temperature.
>
> Thank You Kindly,
>
> Corwyn
>
>
> --
> Topher Belknap
> Green Fret Consulting
> Kermit didn't know the half of it...
> http://www.greenfret.com/
> topher at greenfret.com
> (207) 882-7652
>
>
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