Cool temperatures
The colder your home is, the more likely you are to suffer from condensation. Try to make sure that all rooms are at least partially heated. Condensation most often occurs in unheated bedrooms. To prevent condensation, the heat has to keep room surfaces reasonably warm. It takes time for a cold building to warm up, so it is better to have a small amount of heat for a long period, than a lot of heat for a short period.
Houses and flats left unoccupied and unheated during the day get cold, which encourages condensation. Whenever possible, it is best to keep the heating on, even at a low-level. In houses, the rooms above a heated living room benefit to some extent from heat rising through the floor. However, in bungalows and in most flats, this does not happen due to increased insulation.
Some rooms are especially cold because they have several outside walls, or lose heat through a room as well as walls. Such rooms are most likely to have condensation and some heating is therefore necessary. Even in a well-insulated house and with reasonable ventilation, it is likely to be necessary to keep all rooms in cold weather at no less than 10°C to avoid condensation. When living rooms are in use, you should raise their temperature to about 20°C.
| The information on these pages is available in print or to download in our Preventing Condensation Leaflet. |  |
