Should you open windows, even in the winter?  Do you, my blog reader do this?  Why?  Why not?  Is conserving heat better than a cold blast of fresh air?

Levels of ventilation here in the Quirky Museum have again crept into our conversations, as per the previous post regarding a dose of Covid for Christmas.

Windows were flung open, curtains billowed and swayed in the breeze as my mother reached for her hat and scarf.  Well, perhaps that is a slight exaggeration but at least you can get the picture; in the interests of health, the house was aired.

Perhaps, for many living in modern homes, giving the house a good airing has largely become a thing of the past?  Beds, clothing and entire rooms don’t seem to be aired as they once were.  Is this because we are being reprogrammed in the interests of saving energy?  Maybe.

However, here at the Quirky Museum we make efforts not to live in an air tight bubble, although if the Insulation Police ever came around here they’d have a field day, burst a blood vessel and generally have a hissy fit at the lack of air-tightness.  Sometimes you can even see a curtain move slightly if it’s very windy outside.

Given the leaky nature of the entire building, it’s not exactly difficult to live in a well ventilated environment.  The result is having absolutely no damp areas in the house, other than the cellar and that’s to be expected.  We do, however, generally leave the cellar windows slightly open in the winter to allow a certain throughput of cool air which finds its way into the house.  Also the family of mice who winter in the back of the house have to get in somehow through some nook or cranny.

Humidity nerdiness

Through all of this our humidity levels stay fairly low.  I know this will now add to my nerdiness ratings with the news that I have bought a humidity monitor.  Like a kid with a new Christmas present, I have tried it out in various places.

• Cellar (unheated and consistently 12°C in winter) – 72%
• Sitting room (heated to 20-24°C) – 40 to 44%
• Hallway, ground floor (heated to 20°C) – 42%
• Bedroom, first floor with window open (low heating to 15°C) 41-52%

Considering the healthy range is reckoned to be between 40 and 60% I think we are living in a fairly healthy environment, even with six of us in the house and all having daily showers etc.

What about our heating bills?

We heat the house via 15 radiators using gas central heating and it costs about £2,500 a year.  It comes on at 6:30am and goes off at 10:00pm every day from mid September to mid April.

When it’s really cold, or we simply fancy some extra cosiness, we supplement this by burning wood in our ancient wood burner and this, once it really gets going, does a fantastic job.  You can feel the heat on the other side of the room and it warms the brickwork in the centre of the house for quite a long time.

No doubt our energy rating would be poor if we were assessed using the Government’s rather blunt tool.  We don’t have cavity wall insulation, or even a cavity because of the solid walls.  Loft insulation is limited because of the design of the building.  Windows are either double glazed or original Victorian wood with very thin glass, albeit with secondary double glazing.

Lüften

It seems the Germans have this ventilation lark down to a fine art.  They even have a special word for it – Lüften – which I think means to ventilate, to air something.

It seems that no matter how cold the weather, the Germans throw open their windows for at least 10 minutes each day, to blow some fresh air through.

If a blast of fresh, dry air comes through, surely this is beneficial?  If it helps lower humidity the environment becomes easier to heat, compared to moist damp air?  Besides, it must be healthier?

So, what do you do?