[Greenbuilding] Drying House in Humid Season

[Stephen Collette]

Hello all,

Well you could add materials that can safely and effectively take the moisture swings out of the building, by safely taking in water. The higher the material's ability to store the water, the greater the moisture reduction in the air. Clay comes to mind. Been used for a couple of years with pretty good success.

Hygric bearing capacity of building materials helps dramatically. Unfinished wood, clay, unfinished cork all have capacity to do this. These take the spikes out of the humidity and hold the water until conditions change and they are a higher potential than the surrounding environment, which they safely release the moisture back into the air. Absorption and Desorption. 

I was in a 1950's condo in Florida, and there was raw cork and unfinished wood in the bathroom. 2 successive showers and you could still see in the mirror, no fog, no moisture in the air. Awesome stuff. 

I hope that helps.

Stephen

Stephen Collette BBEC, LEED AP, BSSO
Your Healthy House - Indoor Environmental Testing & Building Consulting
http://www.yourhealthyhouse.ca
stephen at yourhealthyhouse.ca
705.652.5159








On Nov 19, 2013, at 2:00 PM, greenbuilding-request at lists.bioenergylists.org wrote:

> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 22:32:26 -0500
> From: <conservationarchitect at rockbridge.net>
> To: <greenbuilding at lists.bioenergylists.org>
> Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] Drying House in Humid Season
> Message-ID: <5D7943FB13054BB39B6B8189C9CB1E6A at userHP>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> Corwyn / Topher Belknap and Nick Pine responded to my message describing using heat in summer to dry out my house.
> 
> 
> 
> Beyond my experience, what strategies do others use other than refrigerant driven dehumidification for restraining humidity in house when ambient humidity is high. Assume reasonable control of humidity at source such as ventilation at baths and kitchens.  If all living in humid and mixed humid climates must have refrigerant driven dehumidification to maintain healthy conditions, we are doomed. Often old equipment stops working after refrigerant leaks into atmosphere.    

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