Trailer Vented With Furnace On?
DW thinks opening vents or windows with the furnace on will help cut down on condensation. I'd just as soon close it up tight & not lose the heat. Aaaand, discuss....
Forum Discussion
mike-s wrote:
Which furnace do you have? One of the common propane ones with intake/exhaust vents on the outside? They don't add moisture to the inside air.
If you have one of the catalytic propane ones (although they're usually called heaters and not furnaces), then they do produce lots of moisture.
The furnace doesn't, but people sure do! It's a small enclosed space and all of the moisture that you and your wife exhale will make it humid fast. Cracking a vent or window is good advice.darsben1 wrote:
Bzzzzt. Wrong Answer. I'll claim that the OP breathes whether the furnace is on or not.
RESPIRATION IS THE ANSWER to your question.Boon Docker wrote:
You will have the same amount of humidity produced whether you run the furnace or not run the furnace. The furnace is not going to raise the humidity.
It is not just the level of humidity that causes the problem. The difference in temp between outside and inside is what ultimately does it.
Set a glass of ice water on the counter and watch the condensation form.
Set a glass of room temp. water next to it, and observe that condensation does NOT happen on it.
So not running the heat and having a cold TT will prevent condensation.
But since most of us like it warm in our RVs, other control methods must be used.
Breathing into warm air raises the humidity level more than breathing into cold air.... This makes the problem more severe.
Do SOMETHING to mitigate it or you WILL have problems down the road.
My owners manuals for my last two TTs from different manufacturers warn of this as well.- You will have the same amount of humidity produced whether you run the furnace or not run the furnace. The furnace is not going to raise the humidity.
mike-s wrote:
darsben1 wrote:
Yeah, and where do you propose that this additional moisture which the warm air can hold comes from?
But warmer air hold more moisture and when it comes in contact with the relatively cooler windows CONDENSATION will form on the windows.
Respiration will increase the humidity of the air
Regular furnaces exhaust all the combustion byproducts, which includes the moisture (hydrocarbons + oxygen = H2O as a major byproduct). Running a furnace adds no additional moisture to the interior air.
RESPIRATION IS THE ANSWER to your question. Ever see your breath on a cold day? What you are seeing is moisture from your breath condensing when it hits something cooler. Your breath comes out about 98 degrees, warmer than the air in your trailer so the it CONDENSES.Every breath adds more condensate of your breath into the air in your rig. It has to be vented.
Same theory applies to submarines and spaceraft but they use scrubbers to lower the moisture- Leave the wife at home and go camping by yourself.
There.....you just cut the amount of moisture in the air from human respiration in half. :)
Close it up tight, and enjoy the warmth. Turn on the TV set to the football game, and crack open a beer. Life is good. :B - We leave the potty room vent open yearround, run the shower fan when showering,run kitchen vent fan when cooking. Yes we fulltime and spend time where temps get down to the teens. Six years on the road and no problem with condensation and we only have single pane windows.
- It is vital that RV owners take steps to control humidity. The condensation foming ofn the windows is a warning sign. Unless action is taken it will also form inside the walls. The water vapor penetrates all of the non air tight marterials until it comes in contact with the one it cannot penetrate. Usually the Filon outer layer. It then cools and condensates between the Filon and the luan that it is glued to. This breaks the glue bond and causes DELAMINATION.
Venting works, at the expense of losing some heat. A dehunidifier works very well if you have a way to power it.
My first one was a 40 pint model which did the job. It was recalled and I got a 50 pint one.... There is a very big difference in performance.
Get the largest one that you can live with... You will thank me later for this advice. JWRoberts wrote:
You guys can be right if you really want to.mike-s wrote:
darsben1 wrote:
Yeah, and where do you propose that this additional moisture which the warm air can hold comes from?
But warmer air hold more moisture and when it comes in contact with the relatively cooler windows CONDENSATION will form on the windows.
Respiration will increase the humidity of the air
Regular furnaces exhaust all the combustion byproducts, which includes the moisture (hydrocarbons + oxygen = H2O as a major byproduct). Running a furnace adds no additional moisture to the interior air.
This is the correct answer....
All you gotta do is stop breathing.:Smike-s wrote:
darsben1 wrote:
Yeah, and where do you propose that this additional moisture which the warm air can hold comes from?
But warmer air hold more moisture and when it comes in contact with the relatively cooler windows CONDENSATION will form on the windows.
Respiration will increase the humidity of the air
Regular furnaces exhaust all the combustion byproducts, which includes the moisture (hydrocarbons + oxygen = H2O as a major byproduct). Running a furnace adds no additional moisture to the interior air.
This is the correct answer....
