Make Your Windows Last Longer

Do this one thing and you’ll reduce (or eliminate altogether) the amount of condensation that accumulates on your windows and will make your windows last longer.

Did you know that if you remove the screens on the inside of your windows in the winter time, then your windows will last longer?

windows condensationDo you ever get condensation building on the inside of your windows? Perhaps only on the coldest of days… or maybe it’s pretty much all winter long.

You see when it’s cold outside, the windows in our homes are like a funnel for all the warm humid air that’s in our house. Windows have anywhere from 5% to 15% of the resistance to keeping in the heat as of our exterior walls. In other words, houses built with 2×6 walls have an R20 insulation in the wall cavities, and those same houses may have vinyl framed, double glazed windows with an 1/2″ air space… that window has an R-value of about R2… That’s it.

So, since the window offers far less resistance (R-value) than our walls, the heat is naturally drawn towards the windows.

Contrary to popular belief… HEAT DOES NOT RISE… 

Hot air rises.

Hot air is moving air, possibly forced through your vents when the furnace is running. When your furnace stops, then the air movement also stops. The only thing happening now is that HEAT IS MOVING TO COLD.

So heat moves to cold. That is always happening. When we sit in front of the fire, we warm up windows condensation1because we are colder than the fire… When we touch the stove element, we get a burn because we are clearly cooler than the hot element.

When heat moves through the screen and towards a cold window, the air temperature cools. When the air cools, the vapor falls out of the air… or rather in the case of a window, the vapor condenses into water and sticks to the inside of the glass.

Warmer air can hold more vapor than colder air!

When our screens are in place, the naturally occurring air currents, ventilation systems, bathroom exhaust fans, and kitchen range hood fans simply cannot get past the screens to pull the water off. As a result, it just sits there and slowly destroys the integrity of the windows… the seals, the weatherstripping and you’ll find that you have to wipe the windows often.

If you have condensation on your windows, and you have your screens on the windows, get up from wherever you’re reading this, and go take a look at the windows with screens and the windows without screens and you will have your answer.  The windows with screens are usually much worse for wear than the others without screens. 

If you’ve enjoyed this article and you’d like to get more of these in the future feel free to sign up for my newsletter. Further, if you got something out of this, and you’d like to share it with others, post it to your Facebook page or leave me a comment below. As you can see, one little trick here will make your windows last longer… even if for just a few extra years!

Cheers!

 

 

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