*Juno* Another window question

[hereonceagain]

Today I woke up to some of our windows covered in condensation on the INSIDE! They were all weatherproofed when refurbished and it looks as if they did a good job weatherproofing, but now I wonder. Today was 10 degrees colder outside than it had been, and inside the house it was 4 degrees colder. Does this seem normal?? Or does it possibly need a better job of weather proofing? The condensation was not on all windows, maybe just the north facing ones, and they were wet around the edges of the glass on the inside. Thoughts?

[Deleted]

Yep, that is the one thing that a storm window would help you with in LA. We have the same thing here, and that's why I have storms. What is means is that you have a lot of humidity inside, where it's warm (warm air holds more water), and when that warm moist air hits that cold pane, the water condenses. It DOES NOT mean you have a leak from the outside. It means you are human and let off water when you breathe, when you sweat, when you run the faucet in your bathroom, when you cook dinner.

A double paned (or stormed) window will also condense when it is super cold, but it takes a larger temp. difference to do so. That pocket of air between the two panes of glass stays at sort of a medium temp. and keeps each of the two panes from having a drastically different temp. on each side (think cold, neutral, warm as oppsed to cold, warm).

If you do not want to buy storms for the three days a year in LA when it's cold outside (haha), just get a towel and wipe the moisture off the panes in the mornings. Letting it drip down and sit on the wood isn't good for the wood. Otherwise, it's pretty much the only downside I've witnessed to single pane and why I spent a year building storms.

ETA: The two double-paned Marvins I have left in my kitchen are condensing right now (we're 30s/40s at night), while my stormed windows in the same room aren't condensing at all, so again, double pane wouldn't solve the problem completely.

ETA2: Another possible solution is a dehumidifier, but we have one in our basement and it costs a freaking fortune to run ($100/mo.), so we never do.

[hereonceagain]

I ran to you before google, lol. I just read about it on the web too, but your answers are easier to understand. Thanks! Since it's the first winter in this house, I'm not sure how many days we will have this cold. The good news is that lowest temp since our new roof and refurbished windows has been 65 degrees. Prior to that I think we were at 58 degrees (both with no heater running at all). So we obviously don't have a big problem. I'm really curious to see if it gets colder throughout the winter.

I just read about the humidifiers, and I think we'll pass too. We spent too much effort trying to get our house energy efficient. I just read on the web too that I can spray some anti-condensation spray on the window to see if that helps. I panicked a little thinking the windows were not insulated correctly, but thankfully that is not the case I don't mind wiping a little water off occasionally, and it will give me a reason to clean them lol.

Thanks for your reply!

[Deleted]

Certainly! Some other sort of simple things: if you sleep with your bedroom door closed, that tends to trap a lot of heat a moisture in the bedroom, so sleeping with the door open can reduce it a little in the bedroom, which is where we have the biggest problem. Also, we have really heavy curtains in the bedroom, which are supposed to insulate, but that seems to trap moisture against the panes, so it's a balancing act of whether I want to insulate or cause more condensation.

It's a Paradox. The more efficient you are at keeping heat in your house (a good thing!), the more of a temp. difference you will cause, which ups the condensation. I'd rather have a warm house and deal with a little condensation though than have it the same temp. inside and outside I decided it was worth it for us to go ahead with the storms because I'd rather deal with putting those on once a year than wiping every day for 4 mos. We're a good bit colder than you are though. Ours started condensing weeks ago, so the storms went up a while back.