If I run a fan and keep my window open so that the air circulates in the apartment, am I less likely to get mold on my clothes and furniture when the humidity is high?
I haven’t had any problems in that regard, even though humidity in the apartment is often around 80%, but I’ve heard that many others have had issues, so I’m worried.
The reason I’m asking is that it’s a bit 麻煩 to open and close my window. I have a cat, so when I open the window I have to fasten a DIY grille in the window frame to prevent kitty from tearing through the bug screen and jump out in search of birds. Removing the grille to close the window and run the dehumidifier for a few hours is a bit annoying, so I’m tempted to just keep the window open and have the fan on while I’m home for comfort. But, as mentioned, I’m worried about the long term effects of such behavior. Any advice appreciated, thanks.
I personally don’t leave my windows open unless it’s unusually nice outside and I run the dehumidifiers and ACs almost every day. Fans in every room, too. No mold problems so far. I have several indoor plants to help keep the air fresh, but if you get plants you’ll need to be sure your cat can’t get to them and eat them.
If you’re worried about your clothes, get some desiccant packs to throw in your drawers and hang between your clothes. Make sure your clothes aren’t packed too tightly together and air can flow freely between each item. Open the drawers up when you dehumidify.
I’m located in Taipei, where it’s not quite so wet as some more coastal locations. You’ll have to be more aggressive about your tactics if you’re in a muggier area. I imagine if you’re not seeing any mold now you’re probably doing fine.
Opening the windows is the wrong thing to do if you are concerned about humidity. It is pretty simple really - try and create a “steady state” of humidity level (similar to temperature with the AC). If you open the windows, you lose that, and let higher humidity levels inside. Also, buy a few hygrometers, and put one in each room to stay on top of things.
However, if you have a larger place, this can be harder to accomplish.
How much of an issue is this in Taipei, really? I’ve lived here for 3 years now and never had a problem with clothes going moldy. I don’t use a dehumidifier in my apartment either, although I guess I use AC quite a lot (but not 24/7) during the summer.
I’m quite sceptical of the usefulness of dessicant packs, at least in something not completely airtight (like a wardrobe or chest of drawers). AFAIK, most kinds of dessicants can typically only absorb something like 50% of their weight in water, so maybe a few tens of grams each, which doesn’t amount to much at all when you have high humidity, an essentially unlimited reservoir of water vapor (the atmosphere), and even a small degree of air circulation. They might have some utility in an airtight storage container/bag, but anything slightly open means a continuous supply of water vapor.
I actually did an experiment last summer when I made some batches of soap and wanted to store them at a lower humidity while I was going on vacation for a few weeks. Two large dessicant packs in a relatively small (maybe 10-15 liters) plastic container, tightly closed but not airtight, with humidity sensors inside and outside. Even under these pretty favorable conditions, the dessicant packs made essentially no difference to the humidity, perhaps decreasing it from say 80% to 79% if at all. So I doubt they’d do much better in a wardrobe and, if they did, they’d likely need to be replaced every day or so because the dessicant would get saturated pretty quickly.
Yeah I don’t know, I just hear horror stories. And if the AC is on and brings down the humidity at some point every day I think that would make a huge difference. I’m contemplating foregoing AC entirely for several days on end.
Opening the window in Taiwan to remove humidity is like opening a window in the submarine to drain out the water. The only way to reduce humidity in Taiwan is to seal everything off and turn on AC and dehumidifier. Remember when the AC is not running the compressor (just blowing hot air) it actually ADDS humidity to the room. But in the summer it’s hot and that brings down relative humidity and turning on the AC reduces it further. Mold will be a bigger problem in the winter.
circulating outside air in to remove mold will probably just encourage it, because you’re just adding humidity from the outside but also blowing in more spores…
Depending where you live, in super polluted or dusty areas the open windows brjng in a lot which covers everything and.gives some nutrition to the germination fungi spores when the wet shows up.
We kept all our books, clothes etc in a closed room which worked well and just opened up the whole house. We dont use AC and I have very thick northerner blood.