Condensation In TT on Cold Mornings
My DW and I went on our first October camping trip and first night out when it was cold enough to get condensation inside the TT. Question: What is the best way to prevent this? Not only the windo...
Forum Discussion
Seeing your from Keiser and coast camping, you've experienced first hand the issues with Oregon coast camping in the fall, and winter is even worse.
Basically you have two choices to solve your problem, and it IS a common problem at the coast, your not alone.
Both choices require keeping the interior surfaces above the dewpoint.
first is like some mentioned above with heat and ventilation. Second is to lower the RH so the interior surfaces never get below the dewpoint.
we had similar problems in western oregon in the fall/winter. Our solution is to run a small portable dehumidifier in the trailer when we have full hookups. with this setup I set the thermostat to 45F (the lowest it will go) at night and we NEVER have had condensation problems, just let the dehumidifier run all night.
Go to Freddy's WalMart, Bimart and see what they have on sale this time of year. go for small so it doesn't take up to much room.
they are easy to empty.
Just make sure it is a real dehumidifer, one with a compressor. They are basically a refrigerator with the coils exposed to the air, to condense water out into a bucket. And then they provide a small amount of heat and air circulation as well. It will take gallons of water out of the air every day, and completely solved the problem for us.
Now when we dry camp, another story, since running the dehumidifier isn't an option It's ventilation, ventilation, ventilation and keeping the temps up at night.
A couple of things to be aware of as far as moisture. When your using the gas stove or oven, for every gallon of propane you burn, you will put about 3 quarts of water into the air. Add to that water vapor when you boil water or cook. don't worry about the forced air furnace or HW heater, all it's combustion air vents outside and won't add moisture to the interior air.
IMHO if moisture is a problem probably one of the worst things you can do is run a non vented propane heater inside the trailer. (cat heater or whatever hydrocarbon CxHy +O2= H2O(water) + CO2 + heat) Now your again adding 3 quarts of water for every gallon of propane your burning for heat.
And people actually add a fair amount of moisture to the air every day just from breathing and perspiration. Along with any wet/damp clothing. It all adds up in a hurry in a relatively confined space.
and ALWAYS have a vent fan on when using the shower.
A problem we run into is that in the fall/winter on the coast outside RH is near 100%, so even though RH drops rapidly with temps, ventilation will help under these conditions, but the air coming in isn't at all dry and doesn't always completely solve the problem.
PM if you have more questions.
Basically you have two choices to solve your problem, and it IS a common problem at the coast, your not alone.
Both choices require keeping the interior surfaces above the dewpoint.
first is like some mentioned above with heat and ventilation. Second is to lower the RH so the interior surfaces never get below the dewpoint.
we had similar problems in western oregon in the fall/winter. Our solution is to run a small portable dehumidifier in the trailer when we have full hookups. with this setup I set the thermostat to 45F (the lowest it will go) at night and we NEVER have had condensation problems, just let the dehumidifier run all night.
Go to Freddy's WalMart, Bimart and see what they have on sale this time of year. go for small so it doesn't take up to much room.
they are easy to empty.
Just make sure it is a real dehumidifer, one with a compressor. They are basically a refrigerator with the coils exposed to the air, to condense water out into a bucket. And then they provide a small amount of heat and air circulation as well. It will take gallons of water out of the air every day, and completely solved the problem for us.
Now when we dry camp, another story, since running the dehumidifier isn't an option It's ventilation, ventilation, ventilation and keeping the temps up at night.
A couple of things to be aware of as far as moisture. When your using the gas stove or oven, for every gallon of propane you burn, you will put about 3 quarts of water into the air. Add to that water vapor when you boil water or cook. don't worry about the forced air furnace or HW heater, all it's combustion air vents outside and won't add moisture to the interior air.
IMHO if moisture is a problem probably one of the worst things you can do is run a non vented propane heater inside the trailer. (cat heater or whatever hydrocarbon CxHy +O2= H2O(water) + CO2 + heat) Now your again adding 3 quarts of water for every gallon of propane your burning for heat.
And people actually add a fair amount of moisture to the air every day just from breathing and perspiration. Along with any wet/damp clothing. It all adds up in a hurry in a relatively confined space.
and ALWAYS have a vent fan on when using the shower.
A problem we run into is that in the fall/winter on the coast outside RH is near 100%, so even though RH drops rapidly with temps, ventilation will help under these conditions, but the air coming in isn't at all dry and doesn't always completely solve the problem.
PM if you have more questions.
