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re: damp apartment
18 nov 1998
dave garland wrote:
> "> from: "bq"
> "> ...my apartment is damp... so damp that there was droplets of water
> "> on my ceiling when i got home from school... does anyone know of an
> "> inexpensive way to get rid of the dampness? i don't have a
> "> dehumidifier... also, my apartment is kinda cool. i kinda like it
> "> that way. in fact i just turned on the heat to but only because
> "> a friend of mine thought it might help with the moisture problem...
>you got a problem. assuming that the moisture is condensation, the only
>things that will cure it are 1) more insulation, or 2) enough heat to
>raise the walls above the dew point.
how about 3) reducing the rate of moisture generation from plants,
aquaria, cooking, breathing, indoor clotheslines, showers, toilets,
a damp basement, water leaks from plumbing or the outdoors, and so on, or
4) opening a window a bit once in a while, on a cold night? outdoor air
at 20 f and 100% relative humidity becomes indoor air at 70 f and
13.5% rh, once you warm it up.
replacing 13.3 ft^3 of 70 f 50% room air with 0.106 pounds of water
vapor with 12.1 ft^3 of 20 f 100% outdoor air with 0.026 pounds of water
removes 0.08 pounds of water, so a lush green plant that requires a pint
per day of watering would require an additional 150 ft^3 per day or
0.1 cfm of outdoor air to maintain the room's 50% humidity, adding about
0.4 cents per day to a 10 cent/kwh electric heating bill. that airflow
might come from a window with an open gap with area av at the top, with
0.1 cfm = 16.6 av sqrt(4'(70f-50f)), so av = 0.0004 ft^2 or 0.06 in^2
or a very small 0.002" crack in a 2' wide x 4' tall window.
you might invest in a humidity meter, or a $4.95 humidistat and
a $10 exhaust fan.
and putting more insulation above the ceiling might be easy...
nick
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