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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">OK but Corwyn gave a fairly complete
explanation of what problem you have to solve, one likely fix but
also indirectly suggestions about what else you can do.. The
recommended RH of 40 - 60 is not realistic during the winters of
truly cold climates unless you either tolerate condensation and
icing or have much higher performance windows than your 9 yr old
Pellas. You find interior storms to be out of reach (time and
effort at least, all 50?) and you don't want to, say, stick strips
of foam along the bottom of your glazing (I'm not recommending
that), but somehow lowering the RH or warming the glass (I'm
imagining 50 fans to boost local temperatures at the glass), are
your options as Corwyn rightly suggests.<br>
<br>
Condensation on the base on the inside is the classic location
where windows tend to be coldest whether or not they are airtight.
The airtightness between the panes is relevant to condensation on
the exterior panes, relatively moist interior air getting to those
colder outside surfaces. The airtightness of the window assembly
can make the interior surfaces of a window colder, not just at the
bottom edge of the glass. Windows will be colder than most other
surfaces of your building envelope (or hopefully so!!) so windows
will be your dehumidifier.<br>
<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAM6L0t4GLPeOyYVJuDWCCvG9w9CS8LKAob67om8X4_x7ZdUjFQ@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite"><font><font face="verdana,sans-serif">thanks <font>for
the suggestion Cor<font>wyn 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 <font>within
my time frame--a long story here)</font>. I can't
possibly imagine building storms for the inside of these.<br>
<br>
<font>Our indoor humidity is within the <font>suggested
range.</font></font><br>
<br>
<font>S</font><br>
</font></font></font></font><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Oct 28, 2012 at 5:24 PM, Corwyn <span
dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:corwyn@midcoast.com" target="_blank">corwyn@midcoast.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div class="im">On 10/28/2012 1:20 PM, Sacie Lambertson wrote:<br>
Our windows are starting to condensate at the base on the<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
inside. Many of you have suggested this is the penalty of
winter.<br>
Isn't there anything I can do about it?<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
</div>
See my previous suggestion for interior storm windows.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
Thank You Kindly,<br>
<br>
Corwyn<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
<br>
<br>
-- <br>
Topher Belknap<br>
Green Fret Consulting<br>
Kermit didn't know the half of it...<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.greenfret.com/"
target="_blank">http://www.greenfret.com/</a><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:topher@greenfret.com" target="_blank">topher@greenfret.com</a><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="tel:%28207%29%20882-7652"
value="+12078827652" target="_blank">(207) 882-7652</a></font></span>
<div class="HOEnZb">
<div class="h5"><br>
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