[vinricci]

We are in a home built in May that has water droplets on the bottom sill of almost every double-pane window. Should we be concerned that the windows are defective?

[twoplanekid]

During certain times of the year with the atmospheric conditions just right, condensation will form on the windows and frames. I called home warranty last year about that issue on our new home and was told to keep the ceiling fans running.

[DangeloInspections]

No, you can rest easy they are 99.999999% not defective. This is VERY common in the new homes. New homes are tighter and thus they need to have a more pro active mindset on monitoring humidity levels.

Whenever you cook on the stove, turn your range hood on. Whenever you take a shower, turn your bath fans on for awhile.

If you have blinds or shutters, keep them partially open pointing towards the ceiling. Make sure your windows are latched and not just closed.

Put your ceiling fans on the winter setting, blowing up. There is a small switch on your fan to make it either blow up or down. Blow Up in the winter, down in the summer.

In severe cases you may want to put some old towels along the sill so the condensation does not drip off of the sill and down the drywall and onto the floor. I have seen expensive flooring ruined from condensation.

It is just like having a glass of lemonaide on a hot day....the glass will sweat.

Windows, almost all windows are not all that energy efficient, and when the air outside is colder than the air inside, and the air inside is humid, windows will sweat.

I have a inexpensive humidity monitor in the middle of my home and constantly monitor the humidity both inside my home and outside my home. I try to keep the inside humidity around 50%.

As much as I like the fresh air inside the home, I always check the humidity levels first....just because it might be 3 degrees cooler outside than it is inside does not mean we want to open the windows to let the cooler air in to cool the house down. If the humidity outside is 93%, you are doing yourself no favors increasing the interior humidity, as your A/C will just work harder hours later when you turn it back on.

Sorry for the long post. Basically it is all about humidity levels.

Frank

[villagetinker]

Frank is correct, we had the same situation when we first moved in. I appears new houses are actually damp, and take a few months to completely dry out. We have not seen the condensation since the first winter, this is now our third.

Also, be sure that your DE-HUMIDIFY setting is enabled on your thermostat.

[rjm1cc]

There is a lot of water in the building materials and it can take months to evaporate. Now having said that I get water vapor (nothing on sills) on my windows from time to time. I think this is normal. You can mention it to warranty in an email so you have a record and then see if all is ok next winter.

[DangeloInspections]

Originally Posted by villagetinker

Frank is correct, we had the same situation when we first moved in. I appears new houses are actually damp, and take a few months to completely dry out. We have not seen the condensation since the first winter, this is now our third.

Also, be sure that your DE-HUMIDIFY setting is enabled on your thermostat.

Originally Posted by rjm1cc

There is a lot of water in the building materials and it can take months to evaporate. Now having said that I get water vapor (nothing on sills) on my windows from time to time. I think this is normal. You can mention it to warranty in an email so you have a record and then see if all is ok next winter.

Both excellent posts.....I meant to also mention this, but forgot....I'll blame it on posting before the first cup of coffee.....sorry!

Frank

[jnieman]

I would get a meter that measures your humidity to see if that is the issue. If you ever see fog between the panes that is a window issue for sure and should be covered for many years. Your window warranty lasts for a very long time. Our house is 7 years old and they still honor the warranty. The company who installed our windows is out of business but another company picked up the warranty work.

[rubicon]

My home was built in 2006 and to this day condensation will form on the windows on the east side of the house. Yes my HVAC unit keeps the humidity below 50%. Yes I use the fans in an up movement mode. Yes I open my shutters. and yes in those periods every morning I use towels to absorb the condensation

[graciegirl]

The high humidity on this large peninsula surrounded almost entirely by huge bodies of water at all times of the year makes the water in the air inside of our homes very high in humidity and it will condense when it hits the cooler window glass.


Nothing wrong with the air. Nothing wrong with the window. Nothing wrong.


I hear Arizona is drier. But.....they don't have... you get where I'm goin....

[Count'n the days]

I agree with the point regarding the humidity and in our situation the amount of condensation on our windows has lessened as our home has dried out after the build. However, even though the windows are double paned, the frames are metal. When they get cold on the outside the entire frame gets cold and creates condensation on the inside. It would have been nice had they built with a better quality window.