Moisture problems,

[Toolpusher]

Had a call from a guy, who is having problems with moisture.
He's had another guy there, now the guy won't return his calls. After 4 calls Tech won't call back, so he calls me.

He said he has turned off the humidifier completely, and has had it off for while now, meaning weeks,but still has moisture.
He said furnace is about 13 to 15 yrs old.

And I myself have had more moisture this yr then in the past, I don't have a humidifier, My meter shows a constant 71* @ 32% humidity. Although right now it shows 28%.

Any thoughts on why I have moisture at 32% with no humidifer ? Or why this other guy would have any as well.
My house is 7 yrs old and pretty tight, I don't know about his yet.

[fat eddy]

Where is the moisture at ?

[Toolpusher]

Mine is low on the windows when I have it,

He said his is the windows also, but also has some in a closet corner.

[fat eddy]

If the temperature of the window is lower than the dewpoint of the air on its surface it will condensate. Is it colder this year compared to previous years ?

Same goes for the closet corner, I would get a CO reading before I did anything else though.

[Toolpusher]

Here in the dayton springfield area, it's been up and down.
No prolonged cold snaps, and no distinct warm ups.

He did say that the east and west ends of his house were the worst, while the center not as bad.
I'm leaning towards infiltration on his apart. Except for the closet, that i don't know.

I know moisture will form due to those differences you mentioned, I have been to one guys house that had can lighting that drips moisture into his house.
Cold air in the attic, against warm can lights.

[rfelectron]

Given: 71F db and 30%RH---> dew point= 38F

[billva]

i've seen this occur with a clogged or disconnected dryer vent.

[marylandtech]

I agree on the dryer vent scenario. Maybe a simple solution.

[Toolpusher]

I'm heading over there in a few,

I took a hygrometer over this morning, to see
what his humidity level would be.

I cpoulsn't stay, So I told him i'd be back.

I'll check the dryer

[Toolpusher]

An incredable find,

As I said another outfit has been working for this guy, But they have refused to call this man back. He's called them 4 times this winter.

Anyway I go in to look into his moisture problem, I told him on the phone 1st thing I want to look into is if the humidifier is even turning off the water flow.

I ask him where the humidistat is, he says oh it's in the garage. His furnace is in a closet in the garage, so i said ok lets go. I get to a wall that was built for the closet and there sits the humidistat. Mounted on the garage wall.
I look in the closet and look over the install.
The humidifier was duct mounted ok, and drained good enough.
But the h-stat was monitoring the garage for one thing.
2nd the stat woundn't shut off. He had 58% humidity in the house. I installed a humidistat next to his t-stat. He has a skuttle drum type, the saddle valve is turned all the way in but the hole in the pipe is to big to shut off the water flow. The saddle valve is on a galvenized pipe. 6" away from a copper line.

I'm going back to replace the galvenized pipe, and add a new saddle valve on the copper line.
The only thing he had save him from a flood was the float assembly in the pan. And with all the scale in it I'm surprised it even stopped the water.

Then I see a vent pipe with a drip coming from it, this is a pulse unit BTW, the drip leg on the vent pipe that comes out the side was dripping. Hell, they put in a new Ht exgr 10/03 but never glued the drip leg in place, It was ready to drop off. That would have allowed nothing but exhaust gases in the garage. Unreal.