Keeping a property dry over the winter?

[Nigel]

Can anyone advise how to keep a villa dry over the winter if it is not occupied? I have been advised to install timeclocks on the air conditioning units and heat the property for 60-90 minutes every morning and again every evening - or are dehumidifers a better option? Thanks.

[e-richard]

Definitely recommend dehumidifiers.

However, if you don't have them plumbed in (i.e. pipework to extract the water), you'll need someone to come in and empty the water container almost daily !

[Lesley Jean]

We have our house heated in the morning for an hour and again in the evening for around 2 hours or so. It really has kept our place dry and mould free, also doesn't get that musty smell. We also have an amount of fresh air circulating to help keep it fresh. Works for us.

[bigjomc]

yes you need dehumidifiers as these take the moisture out of the rooms to a drain or tank in the unit , i will be renting these items for owners in the winter months from the end of october , give joe a ring on 282182199 mob 960311718 , free delivery / pickup in the carvoeiro area .

[Ma-Ja's]

Firstly please excuse our ignorance on the subject of dehumidifiers but we are currently looking at buying one and there are so many options we are not sure what to go for!! They all seem to have a per day capacity, but then when you look the amount of water the unit can hold, it is not the equivalent of the day capacity but a lot less - so how does that work then? Any advice on a good brand, how much capacity is required would be gratefully received Thanks in anticipation

[bigjomc]

hi ma - jas , you can buy de - humidifiers that attaches a hose to the bottom of the machine and will dump water out down the hose every couple of hours , so wont need to be empied at all, the units i use are portable air conditioners/de-humidifiers /heaters , and do all 3 functions from 1 unit ,

[Pabbers]

We bought a Rowenta one from Makro which is very easy to use - it has an LED display which is intuitive whether you are English or Portuguese - important to us, as the maids on our management company don't speak English!

The hose sounds like a good idea till we realised that unless your dehumidifier is higher than the point to which it drains, then the water won't flow from hose to proposed drain hole. As we have showers over baths this is a problem - I guess an ordinary shower tray would be ok. The management company only calls once a week so obviously we don't get maximum benefit as we reckon the reservoir fills up in a couple of days and then the machine cuts out till emptied.

We're coming out next weekend to set it going for the winter and have had the hair brained idea of trying to create some sort of platform to stand it on to get the necessary height. Failing that, anyone got any suggestions please?

[bigjomc]

hi pabbers , i would imagine the hose from your machines outlet comes off the bottom , i would suggest the machine placed on the kitchen worktop with the hose going to the sink drain , or out the window into a 5 gallon container the water will find its own level , and what about put the machine on a timer for maybe 1 hour twice a day , this should keep your property dry if all internal doors are left open .

[bazza]

Pabbers, you mention shower over baths so i assume you can have the machine near the bathroom. Most Portugese properties have the drains from the bath, hand basin, and possibly bidet into the floor of the bathroom, covered by a small circular chrome plate which is screwed into the floor.Remove this plate which is brass i think, and keep it. Now go to one of the diy stores that sell replacement cover plates (which are plastic but look like chrome) drill a hole in the plate to accept the plastic drain off pipe from your machine screw it back into the floor and insert the pipe and it will drain itself all winter. when you return change the cover plate back to the original brass one. It works as i have used this idea when away for extended periods.

[Lesley Jean]

I don't know how true it is but I was told not to site a dehumidifier near a bathroom or toilet as it will dry out the u-bend (unless you put the plug in) resulting in the fumes and smells from the drains coming into the house.

[bazza]

Lesley, in most portugese houses there are no u-bends on the sink bath or bidet. The u-bend as you call it is in the chamber in the floor which is covered by the circular cover plate which is what i have refered to. This has a water trap in it to stop smells coming back from the drains.If you piped the machine as i said, the water trap would never dry out.Also i have seen people refer to the toilet u-bend drying out when dehumidifiers are used.This has never happened to me and i have used dehumidifiers in Portugal for seven years. As far as i know water moisture has to be suspended in the air ( as damp or condensation ) for the dehumidifier to remove it. Which is why the machines have fans to circulate air through them. The water in the toilet would not be able to evaporate into the air due to the temperature in the villa in winter. Anyway most toilets in portugal suffer from the dreaded dribble into the pan due to calcium build up in the cistern and never dry out. Hope this helps? BAZZA

[Lesley Jean]

Thanks Bazza, as I said I didn't know if it was true!

[Pabbers]

Bazza, the idea about the chrome plate sounds brilliant - we'll look into that next week. THANKS!!

[Pabbers]

Back in Blighty now. In fact didn't need to try out your suggestion Bazza - we were able to raise the machine in such a way as to get a pipe from it to the bath and we've left it on permanently - seems ok. Thanks for hte idea though.

[Elaine]

We have had a villa in CVO now for three winters without any problems. All we do when we leave in October is set the thermostats to 11 deg so that if the temperature drops drastically the underfloor heating comes on. The underfloor heating goes into the wardrobes and we leave the doors slightly ajar. Our maid goes in once a week and opens the windows/shutters etc and everything has been ok so far.