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Window condensation is a common sight inside vehicles and homes in the cold, winter months. While it might be fun to draw a face on the window when you spot condensation forming on your house or car windows, condensation can get in the way of seeing properly. The increased moisture that condensation indicates could also be harmful to everything from your lungs to your fine fabrics. How can you get rid of condensation on your home windows?
How To Get Rid Of Window Condensation Inside Your Home
Condensation on your windows is most common when outdoor temperatures drop, humidity levels rise, or weather changes. There are good reasons why you want to reduce the amount of condensation around you when it happens. Here are some easy, practical ways that can help you to get rid of window condensation on the inside of your home.
What Causes Window Condensation?
Condensation is a clash between warm air and colder surface temperatures. Interior and exterior window condensation can also be caused by excess humidity levels on the inside or outside of a surface. Condensation is a common result of weather, moisture, and heat differences.
However, condensation might also happen in areas where the temperature is likely to change, like bathrooms or kitchens. For example, cooking food on the stovetop or taking a hot shower. It is common to see ventilation systems and extractor fans in kitchens and bathrooms for this reason.
1: Don’t Use a Humidifier
Humidifiers are great for adjusting the level of humidity in a dry climate such as your home in the winter. But when it comes to areas that pick up condensation due to weather changes, the humidifier itself might be a contributing factor.
If you see condensation on your windows, either turn the humidifier down – or turn it off. Excessive humidity in your home is one of the leading causes of condensation appearing on window panes.
2: Buy a Moisture Eliminator
If you suspect that there is excess moisture in certain areas of your home, you can purchase moisture-eliminating products, such as DampRid. These products often come in buckets that you can set on your floor or in bags that you can hang, typically in your closet.
Use exhaust fans or moisture eliminators in your bathrooms, kitchen, or closets (where they will also help protect your clothing from moisture damage). Moisture eliminators remove excess moisture from indoor air circulation.
3: Up the Heat
Condensation occurs due to changes in humidity and/or temperature. Usually, condensation appears when the inside of a room is different from what’s on the outside. Raising the temperature indoors is one of the best ways to reduce condensation on your double-pane windows. Try a heating fan or a small room heater.
Be careful to increase the heat too much for people who have respiratory conditions such as asthma. Sudden exposure to dry air (just like too-humid air) might increase their chances of breathing difficulty.
4: Add Weather Stripping
Adding weather stripping to your windows and doors can help keep warm air from leaving your home. This home improvement project can help reduce condensation if you’re using storm windows during the winter months. Weatherstripping also helps make your home more energy-efficient.
5: Opening a Window
Opening a window might also be one of the quickest ways to rid the inside of a window from condensation. This works because it equalizes the moisture and temperature levels between the inside and the outside of the environment. However, it’s not always an ideal solution to prevent condensation. This is due to the fact that it turns the inside of the room cold.
Thus, increasing heat makes for a more comfortable way to rid your windows of water vapor, but opening a window just a little might help too in order to let the moist air escape.
6: Use Storm Windows
If you have older windows in your home, using storm windows during the winter months can help reduce condensation on your interior windows. The space between the two windows allows the interior window to stay warmer.
Storm windows can also help reduce your heating bills during the winter. Storm windows themselves can sometimes have condensation. However, they do reduce the condensation on the interior windows, which helps reduce frost buildup.
Condensation on the storm windows often indicates a leak in your interior windows, and you will want to check and/or reapply your weather stripping.
7: Turn on Ceiling Fans
Another great way to remove and prevent window condensation is by turning on your ceiling fan to circulate the air in your home. Make sure your ceiling fan is rotating in a clockwise direction in order for it to push the warm air off the ceiling back down to the floor.
8: Replace Your Windows
In some cases, you will not be able to replace the window glass. Instead, you will need to replace the whole window. This is usually a good idea especially if the windows are old. Great strides have been made in window technology over the years and replacing the entire window may have added benefits as well.
Additional Reading: A Brief Guide to Mold, Moisture and Your Home – United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
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