Saving energy: turning heaters off in unused rooms…

Leaving the doors open will help. The air needs to circulate.

Reported.

My experience is that it is lack of ventilation that causes damp. I had damp in a heated bedroom which always had the window shut and the door was mostly shut. It was also very full of furniture.

What I am trialling with the water traps is cutting off a corner draining it then resealing with a fold pack clip.

It used to be that gas was cheaper than electric, so it was more economical to use central heating all day. Now that the cost is much the same, it makes more sense to just heat the rooms you use. I warm up the bathroom in the morning, but then use electric heaters in the rooms I'm actually using. I leave the doors open so that the air circulates.

I have the heating on very low in the rooms upstairs and I leave the doors open. Unfortunately, my staircase is in the lounge so the heat rises but I have never had damp etc since I moved into this house over 25 years ago. It is well insulated but I rarely opened a window because my cat when she was alive I thought wanted to use one of her 9 lives by jumping out.

It’s really annoying that, having bought a load of disposable ones ( which I feel awful about) I’ve found a mini dehumidifier which isn’t disposable: it’s silica gel so you just warm it up and use it again.

Calendargirl

What are ‘water collectors’ loopyloo?

Have just googled it, and all I seem to see are garden water butts!

A bit cumbersome for the bedroom!

Maybe they mean disposable damp traps ? Like the ones you can get at home bargain etc?

I’ve just read the instruction manual for my old dehumidifier ( I’ve had it for years but have never read the instructions; in fact I only noticed the manual the other day…it was in the kitchen and I’ve no idea how it turned up there) and found out it’s a desiccant one which means that, unlike my new laundry drying one, I can use it in really cold rooms. So I can put it in the loft and then the garage.

What are ‘water collectors’ loopyloo?

Have just googled it, and all I seem to see are garden water butts!

A bit cumbersome for the bedroom!

Have bought thermometers with humidity gauges which I use in the bathroom and other places.
Amazing how if shots up with a shower and takes a long time to drop.
So I use a window vac after using the bathroom and have started to hang water collectors, cheap from Amazon.
We're in a 1930s ex council house.

It’s a bit like buying an electrical item and not reading the instruction manual until something goes wrong: which could have been prevented by reading the instruction manual! It was only recently that I realised that fridges and freezers don’t work in cold rooms because my freezer is ancient and old ones such as mine do work in cold rooms. I think with my house it’s more to do with lack of ventilation rather than turning the heating down because it happened during the summer.

Pippa22

Lots of people might have suggested keeping heating off in unused rooms and the door shut but Martin Lewis has mentioned it more than once. Silly idea.

Martin Lewis is often misquoted.
His website states:
"Make sure you control which rooms you heat, so you're not wasting cash heating empty rooms. You can simply go round the house and turn down the radiators in the rooms you don't want to heat. The Government says you could save around £70 a year turning radiator valves down to between 2.5 and 3 in rooms you don’t use.

Though do be aware that in some homes, colder rooms could lead to more condensation, which can increase the risk of mould. Also, be aware that fridges and freezers generally can't function properly if room temperatures drop too low (typically below 10 degrees)."

@MayBe70
The damp in our walls was caused by rubble bridging the narrow cavities. What made it worse was having cavity wall insulaion put in the walls - all the banging and spraying dislodged more rubble which made more bridges and we had damp in all the walls in the old part of our house. We've had the insulation taken out (the company went bust) but still have odd patches of damp!

Ziplok

I forgot to add, that ventilation is important, too.

Yes. I had an old chest of drawers that I bought at the same time as the dresser. They both had a woodworm problem at first and then a mold problem. But the chest of drawers has been moved into my porch which is far more damp than the living room where the dresser is but hasn't gone moldy because the porch is very draughty. I checked it today just to be on the safe side and it's fine. I was planning to move it back into the house but I'll keep it where it is.

I forgot to add, that ventilation is important, too.

I think it’s a false economy to completely switch off the heating in unused rooms - they’ll get cold and damp. A low, steady temperature will be best. The cost of repairing rooms ruined by damp will be far higher than having heating set to come on when a certain low temp is reached , I think. I suppose if you have a big house, it’s more of a worry trying to keep it warm than if your house is smaller, but nevertheless, permanently unheated rooms will suffer damp issues over time.

Pippa22

Lots of people might have suggested keeping heating off in unused rooms and the door shut but Martin Lewis has mentioned it more than once. Silly idea.

Just watching the Martin Lewis show now, and once again , he is advising turning the heating off in unused rooms.

🤷‍♀️

A timely reminder. The dresser with the damp had mould years ago because I’d placed things directly against the outside wall next to it which I then moved which seemed to solve the problem.However today I read this and pondered on the fact that the dehumidifier in the living room was extracting loads of water. When I checked the outside wall next to the dresser it was very damp so I need to get to the bottom of what’s causing it. When we first moved into this house fifty years ago we had a terrible mould problem and it was caused by non breathable vinyl wallpaper that was popular back then.

Back to basics, sorry if teaching granny to suck eggs.

Mould grows best when there is cold and damp, remove one of those factors and mould will not grow.

Houses could have damp from several potential causes eg damp penetration through walls from wall ties, across bridges into internal walls, cavity foam insulation, single skin brick, imperfect damp courses and so on. Sealed houses could well be a source of damp as in drying washing inside, steam from cooking, breathing from animals and people. If there is mould then search for the damp and where it comes from. Houses are meant to breathe and some paints act to seal walls so they cannot breathe

Warm air holds more moisture, cold air releases moisture which condenses onto cold surfaces offering ideal conditions to mould spores

As a basis, a dehumidifier will help a lot but warmth is what is needed as well as keeping damp out

Sarahr
Our bungalow had been empty for some time when we bought it. Bare floorboards throughout so that was easy to insulate.
Recycled wool under wool carpet. We put 4” of insulation down the complete length of the exposed wall ( semi detached) you can actually feel heat coming off the insulated walls.
Our heating is never turned off. It is set to 21. It switched on at 06.30 this morning for about half an hour and hasn’t been on since.

We have a ventilation system. It draws the stale air, plus the warm steamy air from kitchen and bathroom. Goes through a heat exchanger and warms the air being taken into the house. We have taken up the floor boards downstairs and filled the open space with insulation. 40 cm in the deepest, down to 30 cm in the other rooms. No need for air bricks and no more frozen feet. Also put 10cm insulation boards on the walls. Took out radiators and light the logburner at teatime. Best thing we have ever done. No more condensation, no damp patches and definitely no mould. It's taken best part of the year to do it all but we are now reaping the rewards and enjoying being warm.

Lots of people might have suggested keeping heating off in unused rooms and the door shut but Martin Lewis has mentioned it more than once. Silly idea.

We have put those long, thin tubular heaters on our north facing walls in the bedrooms that aren’t used much. They are fairly economical to run and seem to do the job.

There’s a reason abandoned houses decay and fall apart. It’s lack of heat, causing damp which rots everything. It’s all very well economising and only heating one room but it’s so bad for the house.