At the rear of my house I have a small conservatory. It covers about 15 square
yards, and at the highest point of a sloping roof is approx 8 foot high. The
walls are constructed of double glazed units and the roof is of plastic twin
wall roofing sheets.

Mould and damp has become a problem in the conservatory that is most likely
increased by our habit of hanging up wet coats after walking the dog during
periods of rain.

I did wonder if the purchase of a small de-humidifier would control the
damp/mould.
I am aware that the hanging of wet clothes in such a structure is self
defeating, but as it's off the sitting room it is easier that running wet
clothes to the garage to hang them up. A dehumidifier would hopefully solve
all of my problems, if it's viable.
Pff
--
The address shown on this posting is false. If you need to contact me then wirte to:
peterATpfjamesDOTcoDOTuk

On 24 Apr 2024 06:22:47 GMT, Peter James <peterf@gmail.com> wrote:

>At the rear of my house I have a small conservatory. It covers about 15 square
>yards, and at the highest point of a sloping roof is approx 8 foot high. The
>walls are constructed of double glazed units and the roof is of plastic twin
>wall roofing sheets.
>
>Mould and damp has become a problem in the conservatory that is most likely
>increased by our habit of hanging up wet coats after walking the dog during
>periods of rain.
>
>I did wonder if the purchase of a small de-humidifier would control the
>damp/mould.
>I am aware that the hanging of wet clothes in such a structure is self
>defeating, but as it's off the sitting room it is easier that running wet
>clothes to the garage to hang them up. A dehumidifier would hopefully solve
>all of my problems, if it's viable.
>Pff

How long is a piece of string? Yes, a dehumidifier would reduce the
humidity in there (it's what they do, after all!), but whether
sufficient to prevent mould depends on several factors.

My first thought would be simply to provide a bit of ventilation -
crack a window open, for example - and see if that solves the problem.
You don't say in which direction the conservatory faces - N,S,E or W.
If it's anything other than N it should get some sunshine on sunny
days at any time of the year which will warm it up and reduce the
humidity if you ventilate it. But without ventilation you just get
more 'fug' that condenses on colder spots and in corners, and
encourages mould.

I have a conservatory that faces SE, and routinely hang my laundry up
on a rack in there. There is always a window cracked open. On really
wet days, the laundry is dried off in a spare bedroom using a
dehumidifier, but I never use one in the conservatory.

But there may be an issue of security. Access to my conservatory from
inside the house is via what used to be a secure outside door, so
anyone breaking in would also have to get through that door. And I
have an intruder alarm in the house.

--
Chris

On 24 Apr 2024 06:22:47 GMT, Peter James <peterf@gmail.com> wrote:

>At the rear of my house I have a small conservatory. It covers about 15 square
>yards, and at the highest point of a sloping roof is approx 8 foot high. The
>walls are constructed of double glazed units and the roof is of plastic twin
>wall roofing sheets.
>
>Mould and damp has become a problem in the conservatory that is most likely
>increased by our habit of hanging up wet coats after walking the dog during
>periods of rain.
>
>I did wonder if the purchase of a small de-humidifier would control the
>damp/mould.
>I am aware that the hanging of wet clothes in such a structure is self
>defeating, but as it's off the sitting room it is easier that running wet
>clothes to the garage to hang them up. A dehumidifier would hopefully solve
>all of my problems, if it's viable.
>Pff

Possibly something like this:

https://www.solarventi.com/

would help. Looks very DIY-able: a dark solar thermal collector, plus a small
fan on a small PV panel would blow warm air into the conservatory when the sun
shone. Depends on if there's enough sun for it to work... but it sounds as if
just a bit of heat and air exchange might be enough.

Thomas Prufer

Peter James <peterf@gmail.com> wrote:
> At the rear of my house I have a small conservatory. It covers about 15 square
> yards, and at the highest point of a sloping roof is approx 8 foot high. The
> walls are constructed of double glazed units and the roof is of plastic twin
> wall roofing sheets.
>
> Mould and damp has become a problem in the conservatory that is most likely
> increased by our habit of hanging up wet coats after walking the dog during
> periods of rain.
>
> I did wonder if the purchase of a small de-humidifier would control the
> damp/mould.
> I am aware that the hanging of wet clothes in such a structure is self
> defeating, but as it's off the sitting room it is easier that running wet
> clothes to the garage to hang them up. A dehumidifier would hopefully solve
> all of my problems, if it's viable.
> Pff

The issue with conservatories and for that matter every room in the house
is balancing the need to preserve heat whilst providing adequate
ventilation which is not easy unless you have one of the ventilation
systems that extracts the heat from the venting air and feeds it back into
the house.

Your conservatory roof is probably the worst possible for preserving heat.
When we moved into our bungalow the conservatory had a double glazed roof
but in the evenings the temperature drop was quite marked compared to the
rest of the house. We had the roof replaced with an insulated roof and the
improvements were instant.

Coming back to the issue of ventilation we do not have trickle vents but
keep all opening lights open on their night setting just a slight opening.
This is something the previous owners seemed not to do judging from the
black mould evident when we moved in. This has never been a problem since
venting this way. We accept that we are losing heat but to us it is a
price worth paying for comfort.

Our conservatory would not be allowed under present building regs. as it is
an extension on one of our bedrooms with no doorway and the combined room
has two radiators. We had a curtain with a thermal lining between the two
parts but this was a faff. The biggest improvement we made was to use Hive
with smart TRVs which overcame the problem of having a single room
thermostat as each TRV can demand heat for the radiator/room it controls,
you can literally heat a single room if required. We now have comfortable
even heat throughout the house accepting that the conservatory portion
loses more heat than any other room.

We had a dehumidifier for clothes drying purpose and it really sucked the
moisture out of the atmosphere and made the conservatory markedly warmer.
The only issue with them is that you have to prevent sucking in cold damp
air from outside so they work best in an unventilated sealed room. Our
daughter is making good use of it in her flat for clothes drying purposes.