Humidity Level in House

[CrowRiverRat83]

As the weather has gotten colder, I have a lot of condensation forming on the windows of my house. This is my first winter in the house. I'm just wondering if there is any way to control the humidity level via the furnace. And if so, how do I go about doing that? Thanks.

[BoxMN]

We see/saw the same thing in our cabin (constructed a couple years ago). Do you have air exchanger? If so you will need to find the "sweet spot" by trial and error. Without air exchanger I am not sure how else you would control it, but I think you see more condensation at the start of winter, and then it eases off, or it seems to for us.

Good luck.

[harvey lee]

I have a air exchanger and if I keep my dial at about 42, it keeps the windows free of moisture. I do have to change it from time to time so I keep the windows free of moisture and yet not to dry in the house.

[Surface Tension]

First thing is you need to know what the humidity in the house is.

There are all kinds of inexpensive thermometer/humidity combos to be had.

Then if need be look at where the humidity is coming from and try to reduce that.

Exhaust fans in bathrooms and vented range hoods.

So lets say your home is at 30% humidity and the windows are still fogging.

Well first lets assume your not boiling a big pot of water for an hour or just got done running a steam bath.

In this case its not not high humidity. What type of windows do you have?

If you find it is humidity and you do use the exhaust fans then you should be looking at an air exchanger.

Maybe you have one now.

[BobT]

High humidity may not be the problem. It could be poor quality windows too. Are they sealed double or triple pane or are they single pane with removable exterior storm windows that are poorly sealed? The advantage of sealed double/triple pane is that they do a better job of providing insulating value. The result is that the interior pane doesn't get at cold and so moisture in the house is less likely to condense on the glass. Old single pane windows were poor at this and so you can have more trouble with ice forming on the interior pane.

If the interior of your house it too dry then your heating system will be less efficient because dry air doesn't hold or convect heat as readily as humid air. Also, dry air is less comfortable as well.

[CrowRiverRat83]

Well the windows have cleared up some now. Also, I've noticed the old windows in the bedrooms are terribly drafty. Gotta look into getting those replaced soon. So that might be some of the issue.

I'm not familiar with air exchangers. Where would I look for it in my house? Thanks.