How do you keep your energy bill low and prevent mould? | From other media

Insulate your home, lower the heating and prevent draughts: these seem like simple interventions to overcome a high energy bill. But if you are not careful, you will have problems with mold. This is how you prevent that.

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“We are currently being inundated with mold reports,” says Pim Halkes, construction pathologist at Vochtadvies Nederland. “The heating is lower in many houses and to prevent us from getting too cold, draft stoppers are installed, windows are opened less often or ventilation is closed off. And we live more in one room, so that the heater is not switched on in the rest of the house. All this can result in the humidity and CO2 in a home becoming too high, and mold loves that very much.”

There are no recent figures on how many people suffer from mold. But according to an RIVM report from 2012, this concerns one in ten homes. About 10 percent of all complaints that reach GGDs are about mold, according to the report.

Ventilate vs. airing

Fungi are everywhere. “There are all kinds of fungal spores in the air, both outside and inside,” says Jos Houbraken, researcher at Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute in Utrecht. But under normal conditions, the spores will not grow indoors. Houbraken: “Each type of mold has its own preferences, but they all need moisture. The cellar fungus, for example, thrives in damp enclosed spaces, where they can cause wood rot. Stachybotrys, the notorious black mold on walls, likes prolonged wetness. One mold is more harmful than the others, but the following applies to all fungi: you don’t want them to grow in homes.” According to Houbraken, they can cause allergic reactions and respiratory problems, among other things.

“To prevent moisture problems, it is important to ventilate continuously,” says Puk van Meegeren of Milieu Centraal. “It is a misunderstanding that occasionally opening the window for fifteen minutes is sufficient. That is not ventilation, that is airing. Good for quickly draining moisture after showering, sleeping or cooking, but you also have to be on 24 hours a day. have an air supply and exhaust.” You do this by always having a folding window or ventilation grille open or with mechanical ventilation. “And don’t place draft stoppers near interior doors, that way you limit the spread of fresh air.”

And yes, that takes extra energy. “In a well-ventilated home, a quarter of the heating costs are spent on heating fresh air,” says Van Meegeren. “But this is not a waste, because ventilation is important for your health. If you want to ventilate well and limit your energy loss, you can have a system installed that extracts the heat from the exhaust air and thus heats up the incoming outside air.”

Lime and dirt

In addition to good ventilation, it is also important not to produce too much moisture, says Van Meegeren. “You can reduce your moisture production by, for example, cooking with lids on the pans and setting the extractor hood to maximum, by taking a shorter shower and pulling a squeegee over the tiles after showering. And by drying the laundry outside or in a separate room with the window open.” In addition, according to Van Meegeren, it is wise not to set the thermostat lower than 15 degrees, because moisture precipitates below this temperature. “It is also good to keep wet areas clean, mold attaches faster to lime and dirt.”

“Problems due to humidity can usually be avoided by keeping it below 60 to 70 percent. You can measure this exactly with an air quality meter. If you nevertheless suffer from mould, then there is probably an underlying problem. Halkes: ‘Due to the enormous increase in demand extra insulation, sometimes parties are called in that are less expert. By isolating haphazardly, you sometimes do more harm than good.” Examples of this are that the floor is extra insulated, whereby the crawl space ventilation is closed off or that insulation is placed in an insufficiently water-repellent cavity wall, so that moisture enters the insulation. “And wet insulation does not insulate, because everything that gets wet cools down. You can also suffer from condensation if there is too great a contrast between insulated and cold spots,” says Halkes.

Once the cause of the mold has been removed, you can remove mold once it has formed with a special mold remover. Van Houbraken: “During this cleaning, millions of mold spores can temporarily become airborne. So take protective measures. And if you already have respiratory complaints, don’t do it yourself.”

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