Ventilation Louvres

How did they avoid condensation in the 1850's?

Apart from natural ventilation, opening windows, how else did they avoid condensation?

Public Comments

1. They didn't. Haven't you seen an old movie where the windows are all frosted up??? You are not having an humidity problem if condensation is on your windows and walls. You are having a problem with your heating system and/or poor insulation. Your heating vents are supposed to be underneath the windows. If you are using some kind of diverter to force the air from the vent out into the room then your windows will sweat. It's called dew-point. If the temperature of the windows falls below the dew point temperature of the air in the house it will sweat. You can cover the windows with plastic insulation kits. You do not want to try to remove humidity in the winter time. You will get really dried out and sick. You want to actually add humidity in the winter time.
2. they had plenty of ventilation because there really wasnt no insulation
3. Buildings still had condensation problems back then, but not as bad as they potentially are today. One big reason was that a lot of the humidity (along with the heat) in the winter went up the fireplace chimney. Another contributing factor was that houses were much more "leaky" back then. All those cracks and open spaces were probably the equivalent of a couple of open windows.
4. Back then, houses were not built "tight". They had air circulation throughout. They also did not avoid condensation. Most homes had a kettle of water boiling to keep moisture in the home.