Cold Weather Condensation Reminder!

With the extreme cold temperatures you may have noticed frost, ice and condensation on your windows or glass doors. During the colder months in our climate we often times receive calls from concerned home owners that their windows are not performing as they should due to condensation.  And on that note, we’d like to share some important information regarding condensation, humidity, and temperatures that help explain what is happening inside our homes.

What’s happening:  As the outside temperature drops, the window glass temperature also drops. When warm moist air from inside our homes comes in contact with the cold glass pane, the moisture condenses and forms water droplets. More directly, condensation is not a “window problem” it is merely a reaction of warm, moist air or high humidity levels and cold, dry air from outside the home. For example, the -20 degrees days we had, your home would need to have a relative humidity level under 15 % to avoid interior condensation.  The average home is in the high 20’s to low 30’s.

Tips on how to prevent or correct the issue at hand: 

• Drapes/Blinds should simply not be used in these temps if you want to avoid significant ice, frost , moisture.
• Turning your interior temp down will reduce the amount of moisture the air holds so less will be available to land on the cold surface to create ice, frost , water on the window or door.
• Increasing room circulation is very easy want to reduce condensation on very cold days.
• If you have an iced up window or door.  Applying a lite fan on the door will remove the ice amazingly fast.  It will not melt, it will go from a solid to a gas state through evaporation.  This can be a big help to preservice wood surfaces.

As always if you have questions, we’re here to help!

Article date: 02/19/2021