Wet "Winter" Windows

Some people simply don't notice them and others rack their brains to find a cause and a solution for what is known as "winter windows". Winter windows happen when excessive moisture, water and condensation form on your window, in the inside of your home. This is caused by excessive humidity in the home. As the humid and warm air comes into contact with your cold window, the air quickly cools condensing into water. This is similar to why your cold drink gets wet on the outside during the summer.

However, winter windows (or wet windows) is a much more serious issue than trying to keep your summer drink cold! The water or condensation itself is not an issue, but the damages caused by the water definitely are. Whenever you have water inside your home you need to concern yourself with damage to the material and mold growth.

A typical "Winter Window" showing signs of moisture and mold

Why Do Winter Windows Happen?
As the weather drops outside during the fall months, we tend to close our windows and rely on our furnace for heat. A well built home will have very little air leaks making the inside of our homes almost like a bubble. Many of the activities we do in our homes like cooking, washing, bathing and even breathing cause the relative humidity in your home to rise. Over the summer, since our windows are mostly open, this humid air has the ability to escape and bring in dryer air from the outside, however, during the winter, this humid air stays trapped inside. It's this increase in humidity in your home that causes the wet winter windows.

Winter window with water dripping onto wood frame

Winter window with mold growth

How Can You Prevent Winter Windows?
There are a few preventative ways of managing excessive humidity in your home, however, these will not combat the issue successfully. Most kitchens and bathrooms are equipped with fans which grab the air and push it out of your home. This is always a good first line of defense. Make it a habit to always turn on your kitchen fan, oven range fan or bathroom fan before using it and turn it off about 1 hour after you are finished. Most fans come with a timer which can make this easy to control.

If you live in a small apartment, condo or house, opening southerly-facing windows on a sunny winter day to exchange the air every so often will help recycle the air inside your home, however, this could get costly to heat your home back up to temperature.

If you have ceiling fans installed in your home, turning these on will help circulate the air in your home and "average" out the dryer sections in your home (living rooms, dens, bedrooms) with the humid sections in your home (bathrooms, kitchens)

 What Is The Foolproof Solution?
There is no better way to safeguard yourself against wet winter windows than having or installing a Heat Recovery Ventilation System (HRV). HRV's where brought about in homes to allow the stale air inside a home to be exchanged with the air outside without affecting the temperature of the interior air. So, as the stale air gets blown out, cold air is brought in and heated before being circulated in your home. During the winter months, it is unlikely that the air outside your home contains any moisture (otherwise it would freeze and snow or fall to the ground as ice) so this dry air helps neutralize the humid air inside your home. Quite often running your HRV for a couple of hours a day, once weekly over the winter months is enough to prevent any moisture or condensation build up on your windows.


Can I Use My HRV In The Summer?
The short answer is NO! The key word is "HEAT" recovery ventilation system. Most HRV's are equipped to heat the incoming air so this would defeat the purpose during the summer months when you are trying to keep your home cool. Also, during the summer months, the air outside of your home is most likely just as humid or more humid than then air inside your home so this would worsen the issue!

However, there are products like an Energy Recovery Ventilation System (ERV) or Air Exchangers that treat the air according to the seasons. How to properly choose which unit would suit your home best is another blog topic but the bottom line is that your home needs a ventilation system to help prevent winter windows.

Depending on which unit you choose between an HRV, ERV or an air exchanger, you could spend anywhere between $1000 and $3000 to install and retrofit the unit which might be a big expense. However, replacing damaged windows due to deteriorated materials would cost you well above this. Also, mold in your home could be a long term killer causing mild symptoms such as headaches or respiratory issues and much worse symptoms like lung damage, brain damage and even cancer with prolonged exposure.




HomeReminders
info@HomeReminders.ca
www.HomeReminders.ca
Twitter: @HomeReminders
We're On Facebook!