this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2023
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We've got an insulated house, heat it properly, ventilate it, but still see humidity levels of 70%+ in bed rooms. How to fix that? (self.newzealand)
submitted 1 year ago by sylverstream to c/newzealand
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We built a house 7 years ago and it's insulated and has double glazing. I've installed Home Assistant with temp sensors in the bed rooms and seeing 70%+ humidity levels. Temperature is always above 16c

We ventilate it, but still it's 70% in the bedrooms. WHO recommends 40-60%, so we're a bit worried.

Living room is around 55% during the day when we have the heat pump set at 21c.

As it's pretty humid outside I think it's almost impossible to get it lower, but are there any other tips? I don't want to run dehumidifiers. Would an HRV like system help?

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[–] sylverstream 5 points 1 year ago (20 children)

What do you mean exactly you ventilating. Mechanical ventilation?

We've got mechanical ventilation in the bathrooms.

But I meant just old school opening all the windows :)

TLDR: your house is humid because it’s well sealed and the builders couldn’t be bothered putting in mechanical ventilation because we are 20 years behind the rest of the world.

Yes, I understand that, we generate moist from cooking/breathing/washing and that has to go somewhere. We've got many windows open a little bit 24/7.

I'm from Europe, and yes, houses are better insulated, we had double glazing 30 years ago, and now have triple glazing, but ventilation was never an issue. We just open our windows to ventilate for e.g. an hour and that's it.

[–] cabbage 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

4 year old house, double glazing. We have the heat pump set at 21dg on 24x7 all winter and never really open windows.

Current temps and moisture levels:

If you're worried about moisture I recommend a dehumidifier, those things work wonders and much cheaper than retrofitting ventilation like the other poster mentioned.

I guess it's worth mentioning, we have a tumble drier in the garage so the house doesn't get any moisture from drying clothes.

[–] sylverstream 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Thanks. Those numbers are similar to ours. We never really opened windows either, we're aiming to do that daily from now on.

Just bought a dehumidifier. Indeed easiest and cheapest solution.

[–] cabbage 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm ok with that humidity to be honest, I am not seeing any mould.

[–] sylverstream 3 points 1 year ago

We only a little bit in certain clothes and in the bottom of our alu window frames.

Still above 60% is apparently not healthy. I'd recommend to look into it.

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