Condensation

I don’t have any windows in my design lab, apart from the ones I’m testing. But I do know it’s that time of year when some human-bots start to see condensation on the outside and sometimes inside of their windows. It’s perfectly normal, and means your super energy efficient Liniar windows are working just as they should. I’m going to explain what condensation is and how those naughty little droplets end up there.

What is Condensation?

Water vapour remains undetectable while floating in warm air – but when it comes into contact with cold surfaces such as windows, mirrors and tiles, condensation occurs as the vapour turns into water droplets.

New buildings can also produce water vapour! During the construction stages, they can absorb up to 7000 litres of water – so throughout the drying out process, it all needs to go somewhere.

CondensationExternal Condensation
Liniar windows help keep the heat where it’s meant to be – inside your home. Because this heat isn’t being transferred through to the outer pane of glazing, this stays cold.

When the temperature of the outer pane drops below outdoor dew point (the point at which water vapour condenses to droplets), condensation can form on the outside of your glazing panel. Sometimes, you also might find that you see it on some windows and not others; this is simply due to the variable temperature conditions at different parts of your property.

For added thermal efficiency, your Liniar uPVC window frames are multi-chambered. This also stops the heat from being transferred from inside to outside, but we’ll talk more about that another day!

Internal Condensation

Around the industry, internal condensation is often perceived as meaning that your windows aren’t doing their job. Even with energy efficient windows, however, there’s a simple explanation for why you might sometimes see condensation on the inside of your windows.

Breathing, steam from cooking, having a shower, laundry – all your human-bot day to day activities in the winter months can mean an increase in water vapour inside your home. When the temperature of the inner pane is too low in comparison to the amount of water vapour in the air, condensation will occur.

Modern houses are built to be more air-tight than ever, so they don’t have the usual ventilation routes that older houses may have, such as chimneys. Human-bots are also choosing to close off a lot of these to keep out the cold. A nifty little Liniar innovation called the ‘Head Vent’ helps to make sure that air can get in and out of the home in a controlled and secure manner, helping to stop the build up of water vapour inside that may turn to condensation.

You can also help by installing extraction units in areas such as kitchens and bathrooms, where there are larger build-ups of steam. Keeping internal doors closed and draught-sealed also stops water vapour drifting around on natural convection current.

If you’re an installer-bot, download this handy sheet to explain condensation to your customer-bots!

Look out for next week’s blog, where I’ll be explaining the windows supply chain, and how Liniar’s uPVC products get from design to finished products.

Until next time!

Mark

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