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Moisture and Humidity problem?
By halfcrazy, Section Remote Living Posted on Sun Dec 14th, 2003 at 05:35:21 PM MST
I am building a small home in Maine.

Not sure what category this should be in but here it is. I am building a small home in Maine it is 32 by 24 on a slab with conventional insulation. I am currently heating it during construction with a unvented propane heater. and it is all sheetrocked and painted. The problem i am having is that if i shut the windows the humidity level runs right up to like 65-70% and the windows and doors get soaking wet as well as most of the outlets on the outside wall. I have radiant heat in the slab i just havent got it up and running yet. I have been told the unvented propane heater is the cause of all the humidity? does this sound right or do i need to do something different?

Moisture and Humidity problem? | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 editorial)

by-products (none / 0) (#1)
by wdyasq on Sun Dec 14th, 2003 at 06:58:46 PM MST
(User Info)

The by-products of combustion of hydorcarbons is CO2 and H20. If insufficient oxygen is present you can get CO - Carbon Monoxide - but you won't need to worry about that after it has killed you.

If you care about the benificaries of your insurance policies more than you care about yourself or your life, keep running the propane heater in an enclosed space. If you would like to enjoy the house you are building..... well, make some changes.

Ron
Adventure is just bad planning." -- Roald Amundsen

Re: Moisture and Humidity problem? (none / 0) (#2)
by cevonk (cevonk(atsignhere)aol.com) on Sun Dec 14th, 2003 at 10:52:46 PM MST
(User Info)

For fuels such as kerosene, white gas, and oil, each unit of fuel burned releases roughly an equivalent unit of water into the atmosphere. If that atmosphere is a tightly sealed home humidity will be a serious problem if much fuel is burned. You are loading the interior atmosphere of the home with a lot of water vapor, and it is condensing on the parts of the home that are below the dewpoint of the interior atmosphere. Check those outside wall outlets...the condensation says that they are a source of cold coming into the home (heat leaving, actually.)

I don't know if it would be worthwhile, but you could try to make a heat exchanger for the heater. It might just be a fire hazard. If you are using one of those jet engine looking heaters, you could have it exhaust the heated air into a long section of metal chimney flue that ran across the house and exited at a window. There would be some sacrifice of efficiency, but some of the heat would radiate through the metal chimney flue into the house, while the rest would blow out the window.

You do have to watch out for carbon monoxide poisoning with any kind of device that consumes oxygen from an enclosed space. You can probably get a cheap CO monitor at the hardware store. They work like smoke alarms. Better to be out a few $$ than be found lying on the concrete all stiff and blue.

Re: Moisture and Humidity problem? (none / 0) (#3)
by halfcrazy on Mon Dec 15th, 2003 at 03:52:37 AM MST
(User Info)

Thanks everyone for the comments this heater is a decorative woodstove looking heater it will never be our source of heat we just hooked it up for a week or two till i can get my radiant heat going so i guess i will get on the ball and there is 2 co detectors going in before we move in to. thanks for the advice

[ Parent ]

Re: Moisture and Humidity problem? (none / 0) (#4)
by Norm (peppysue@suite224.net) on Mon Dec 15th, 2003 at 06:33:54 AM MST
(User Info)

There are times when a person can afford to procrastinate, but this isn't one of those times. Please get those co detectors and install them now! Even after you have them installed and as long as you are running this heater be overly cautious and open some windows. Better to be a little cold than....
( :>) Norm
[ Parent ]

Re: Moisture and Humidity problem? (none / 0) (#5)
by converseur (r.thivierge@sympatico.ca) on Mon Jan 5th, 2004 at 08:36:42 PM MST
(User Info)

Hi,

If you use lot of green wood to build the cabin expect lot of humidity the first year. l encountered this problem when l made some renovations and the following year everything was back to normal. Heating with ``green wood`` raises the humidity significantly, you can avoid this problem by making sure you burn it frozen.

Richard

[ Parent ]

Moisture and Humidity problem? | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 editorial)

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