Most of the time people don’t give much thoughts about how to air their house or apartment. During the cold and frosty months of winter at least you mind to keep the doors and windows closed to keep the valuable and costly heating energy inside the house, don’t you? But as soon as the temperature rises again no one really cares anymore… Because if it is warm outside I can open up all windows and doors to let fresh air into my apartment, so there is no problem anymore with damp basements or moist walls, right?
Makes perfectly sense, doesn’t it? I use the good weather and high temperatures to dry my damp basement. But unfortunately it’s not that easy…
Because if I open up all windows during a hot and sunny day, warm air pours into the cold basement and with it comes a lot of humidity. Warm air contains a lot more humidity than cold air, and so it is one of the most significant causes of damp basements and moist walls. Because as soon as the air cools down again, it emits moisture into the surrounding air. This in turn leads to water condensation and hence is inevitably the reason for moisture damages like musty smell, mould or mildew spots.
So, if you want to ventilate your home you should stick to one easy rule: Only open up doors and windows when the outside air is colder than the inside air!
Thereby it doesn’t matter if it is raining, snowing or even the world seems to come to an end because humidity is only transported via air into the house. During a purifying summer storm it could even be the perfect time to open up all windows. Because afterwards the temperature falls again and the cool air which is flowing inside the house can extract humidity from the surrounding air while it is warming up again. The air, now loaded with humidity, should be exchanged again as soon as possible – this means when circumstances give that the outside temperature is lower than the inside temperature again.
Ok, let’s keep in mind to adapt the ventilation behaviour to the temperature level!
During midsummer it can possibly mean that it is only wise to air the house at night. If so, open up all windows to create real ventilation – that’s going to prevent mould and moisture more effectively than constant airing in the daytime!
But sometimes the relative humidity is so high that even efficient ventilation can’t lower the humidity rate sufficiently. In the laundry room, for example, a lot of extra humidity occurs which means there can never be enough fresh air.
In those kind of rooms a dehumidifier can be used supportively. The Trotec TTK S-series provides the right unit for every purpose.
If you want to know which model suits your conditions: Our dehumidifier guide helps you to find out!
