Windows open or closed in basement?

[DVad3r]

Hey guys,

The basement in my house seems to be always damp and kind of smells moldy in the spring/summer/fall. We live in the Toronto area which is always a very hot and humid area, but we rarely use the AC in our house. Our windows on the main floor and upstairs are almost always open. We do have a de-humidifier in the basement that we use sometimes and it does help, but it is loud and probably consumes a lot of power, so we use it once in a while.

I guess my question is would having the basement windows open as well help with it not being that damp? I would think keeping them closed is better as all the cold/damp air from the grass outside would just roll in down straight into the basement. Maybe I am wrong?

 

[xanis]

I'd probably go for closed + dehumidifier. Do you really want to bother with opening and closing windows constantly for the weather?

 

[fstime]

Buy a dehumidifier with a built in pump so you can drain it to something like a washing machine drain and close the windows.

Makes your life a lot easier not having to constantly empty the dehumidifier bucket at least daily. The newer models also have fancy controls which allow you to set the humidity % you desire so it's not always running when it doesn't need to.

I saw this one and it seemed really nice: http://www.amazon.com/DeLonghi-DD50P...i+dehumidifier

 

[rh71]

The dehumidifiers can be loud if you are actually trying to enjoy life in a finished basement. Otherwise it works great for us since we have it draining out to a sink. We set it to 60% and it works great - on/off automatically. The only maintenance is having to "clean" out the filter with a simple rinse every few weeks. Don't notice an increase in the electric bill really.

 

[TheBigEarl]

Hey guys,

The basement in my house seems to be always damp and kind of smells moldy in the spring/summer/fall. We live in the Toronto area which is always a very hot and humid area, but we rarely use the AC in our house. Our windows on the main floor and upstairs are almost always open. We do have a de-humidifier in the basement that we use sometimes and it does help, but it is loud and probably consumes a lot of power, so we use it once in a while.

I guess my question is would having the basement windows open as well help with it not being that damp? I would think keeping them closed is better as all the cold/damp air from the grass outside would just roll in down straight into the basement. Maybe I am wrong?

Two things are making your basement damp. First, as you noted, the humid air from upstairs is heavier than dry air from the air conditioner, so it's sinking down into the basement. Second, basement walls are typically concrete or masonry block, which easily allows water to pass through it, especially in climates with a high water table and damp soils. I would recommend running the humidifier as much as you can in the basement to keep the humidity down. If you have basement windows, opening those when you open the upstairs windows would also help keep the lower lever ventilated.