Advice? How do I reduce moisture/humidity?

[JaseSF]

Was cleaning my bedroom today when we discovered a bunch of mold hidden behind some stuff. Very disturbing as it might well have been contributing to some health problems me and my girlfriend have been having. Anyways I suspect the house has much too much humidity. This mold was in a bedroom in particular. Does anyone here have any good advice to offer on reducing the moisture levels? I've heard that using fans and opening windows can help. Actually our windows always seem to have inside condensation which is a pain in the butt as I always got to be wiping them off. I suspect the main body of the house could very well use a de-humidifier too...

[Menard]

Opening windows and using fans is only going to help if the humidity outside is lower than inside. Around here in just this past summer, the humidity was so strangulating that leaving the windows open would set off one of the fire alarms, which for some reason seemed to be particularly sensitive to moisture in the air.

Keeping adequate ventilation can help with moisture when all things are equal; being that the humidity is not unreasonable.

The best way to get rid of moisture in the air is an air conditioner; it's convenient as it just channels the condensation outside, rather than having to empty a collection well.

Of course, a dehumidifier works when temperatures are too cool for an air conditioner. Keep in mind, though, that when the humidity levels outside drop, especially in winter, you want to keep your humidity levels up then as it prevents severely dry skin among some other potential problems.

You can also get Damp-Rid, something like that, which you can put in closets, bathrooms, and areas where moisture may collect (though keep out of areas accessible to children and pets). This is a two small bucket containing a chemical which draws moisture into it, then drains it down into a collection chamber.

Best treatment, not for humidity, but for your air, would be to get filters for your heat/air which are multi-stage filters which include a spore trapping stage which can help to remove mold spores in the air. Don't forget, though, to clean and spray the area (lysol works) in which you found the mold (wear masks approved for mold), and spray any areas you suspect could harbor mold.

There are other possibilities depending on the design of your home, the foundation, etc. That would be the province of someone with knowledge in that area, and that's not me.

[Jack]

Yeah, close the windows and run the air conditioner - that's the best way to keep the humidity down.  Dehumidifiers are good too, but they don't have nearly the capacity of a central air unit, as the air conditioner basically runs all the air in the entire house through it, while a dehumidifier has a much smaller and less powerful fan that may take hours to run a few rooms worth of air through it.  If you don't have central air I'd recommend getting at least a couple of dehumidifiers.  With extreme humidity, one unit just can't keep up.  A HEPA air purifier is good for removing contaminants from the air, as they've got microscopically small holes in the filter and trap just about everything in them.

It might be a good idea to take a look at the area where the mold was and check if there's any possibility that water was getting in (maybe from the roof or someplace) and causing it.  Also use bleach to clean it up.  Regular cleaners might remove it, but I think you need bleach to actually kill the mold so it doesn't come right back.

[Mr. DS]

If its getting colder in your area a space heater would be a good solution.

[Ed, Ego and Superego]

I'd give the place a good cleaning and then warm it up for a day or three.  Here in oregon its just cool enough to not dry out with widows and such. Maybe different where you are.

[JaseSF]

It is getting colder herebut we've had much much more rainy weather than usual. I've never seen it so rainy here in September and October before. Actually I suspect the main culprit for the mold was clutter. Now I've severely decluttered the problem area and made sure it could breathe well. Everything seems fine for now. Thanks for all the advice guys. Honestly for some reason, this bedroom which is retively small and we do have a number of machines running in at any given time including a laptop and TV, DVD recorder and VCR/DVD player does seem to get much warmer than any other room in the house. It might well be the humidity in the house as we have no air exchanger in the kitchen to get rid of excess steam from cooking and no exhaust fan in the bathroom to reduce the steam from baths.