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Bret was live by the network with only solar and Wind energy f? r many years. Bret built his own house and find out a cost effective way to power his whole house with solar energy and eliminate the worry of receiving a electric bill per month set.

Bret and his family off grid living using solar and wind energy, that they built themselves and Bret explained? Rt all execute very and incomparable in its make a solar panel package k can? A wind generator and build solar cells. I get a solar panel package will give you reliable? Permeable, easily made at home wind turbine building to follow instructions and is in full H? He explained in Part B of the Bret? Rt’s package.

QUESTION: I am a little confused. You say that one of the measures to control internal humidity during the heating season is to ventilate. How can it be possible?

Exterior relative humidity most of the times is higher than interior R.H. Sometimes it is as high as 95-98%.

ANSWER: The misconception is between the meanings of the terms “absolute” and “relative humidity”. In order to achieve “dilution” of interior humidity we need external air drier on an absolute basis. Relative humidity as an index sometimes could be misleading because it strongly depends on temperature.

Let’s see a small example to make it completely clear.

In our beautiful Thessaloniki, North Greece, it’s not a rare phenomenon to have outdoor temperatures near 0oC. This means that even for a R.H. of 100% the absolute humidity or moisture load is 4,8gr/m3.

Coming to the interior rooms…

For an average temperature of 22-23oC the absolute humidity is about 14gr/m3. This is a much bigger number.

Actually for the heating season this is always the case: indoor absolute humidity is higher than outdoor. This means that by ventilating we can always achieve “dilution” of the interior humidity.

QUESTION: What is the most effective measure to prevent/control mold growth in home?

ANSWER: Mold growth is a moisture related problem. When you control moisture, you control mold growth. Potentially there exist many moisture sources etc. roof, façade and basement leaks, pipe leaks, moist air infiltration etc.

Humidity produced from every-day indoor activities is by far the more important moisture source under normal conditions.

So, do your best to reduce production of humidity by abstaining from certain “bad” habits (as for example drying clothes inside).

”QUESTION: I don’t have any condensation or mold problems in my wet rooms. No problem also in the room where we usually dry our clothes on the radiator. But I have problems in other rooms with no vapor production activities. Why?

ANSWER: Firstly we have to stress that water vapor can travel easily from room to room via open doors. So relative humidity can soon be equalized. Reasons for which condensation and mold develop in this special room might be:

1. This room is not ventilated properly.

2. This room is underheated.

3. This room has an unfavourable orientation.

4. And the most probable, there are thermal bridges in the external walls.

Other factors to consider:

- Are there some plants in the room?

- Is this a much-frequented room etc?

QUESTION: There are two identical apartments with the same orientation. I have mold and condensation problems whereas my neighbor who lives one floor above me has practically no problems.

ANSWER: Please check the previous answer. The apartments are identical in form but not in prevailing conditions. Possible differences (except for the above mentioned) could be:

- more people inside your apartment

- a baby maybe?

- adolescents who have baths 2-3 times on a daily basis

- clothes drying indoors

- unvented gas or kerosene heaters etc.

The moral is that two apartments however identical in construction terms, will always have marked differences in their prevailing conditions.

QUESTION: Can we alleviate mold and condensation problems by intervening externally?

ANSWER: If you mean some waterproofing measures, definitely no. The only possible external intervention could be the addition of some extra thermal insulation. Of course this could be done also from inside.

I ‘ve seen a lot of money thrown out of the window trying to solve these problems by external waterproofing.

Chris Strogilis

http://maconwaterproofing.blogspot.com/

When building a new house to live in yourself, or for sale or long term rent, you obviously need water and electricity supplied to your property.

You may also decide to use gas for heating and cooking in your house, in which case you have two options, either a connection to a natural gas supply or to a gas storage tank in your back garden.

The natural gas pipeline network is not yet as widespread as water and electricity supplies, and to get a network connection to your new house you must take the following steps:

Contact Bord Gáis Networks, who will advise you if a natural gas pipeline is near enough to your new house to enable them to connect you to the gas network. Obviously if you are building your new house near existing houses, its very easy to find out what system they are using and check for yourself if piped gas is available.

Depending on the location of your new build house, Bord Gais Networks may either provided a standard connection quotation or they may require a site inspection before issuing you with an individual quotation.

Currently the charge for a natural gas connection is 256 euros up to 15 metres. Thereafter for every extra meter of pipeline trenching dug by Bord Gáis Networks the charge is 53 euros, although this drops to 11 euros per meter if you arrange to have the necessary pipeline dug before Bord Gais Networks arrive to connect your house.

The next step in the connection process is to complete and return a connection contract to Bord Gais Networks. Bord Gais Networks will require that you pay the connection charge before they will proceed with the connection to your property. After you pay them, they will provide you with a installation date and time for the connection to your house.

As with ESB Networks and electricity connections, Bord Gais Networks are concerned with the establishment of a safe and reliable connection to your house and you will need to arrange a separate contract for the actual supply of gas to your house.

Bord Gais have a list of registered gas suppliers approved by them and these suppliers will install the gas meter in your house. You will need a Certificate of Conformance from your registered gas installer, which demonstrates that your natural gas boiler and hot water heating system comply with Bord Gais Network standards of safety and reliability.

Although it is possible for you to employ a non registered installer, Bord Gais Networks will charge you an additional fee to carry out safety checks on your domestic hot water heating system.

This article is only intended as a basic general summary and you should always seek professional advice where necessary.