Experimental investigation of a crawl space located in a sub-arctic climate

A common type of foundation for family houses in Northern countries is crawl spaces, where mould and moisture are a common problem for a large share of these. In this study, measurement in a crawl space located in a subarctic climate has been performed for over a year. Calculation and prediction of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Results in Engineering
Main Authors: Mikael Risberg, Lars Westerlund
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2020
Subjects:
T
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rineng.2020.100158
https://doaj.org/article/d3b74ac918214deeb0ba661a4e435e8a
Description
Summary:A common type of foundation for family houses in Northern countries is crawl spaces, where mould and moisture are a common problem for a large share of these. In this study, measurement in a crawl space located in a subarctic climate has been performed for over a year. Calculation and prediction of the climate inside the crawl space are performed both for the experimental case with a dehumidifier and a theoretical case without a dehumidifier. The results show that it is not necessary to measure at several points in the crawl space since the difference between the measurement points is small. The relative humidity is below the critical in the investigated crawl space during the whole year when a dehumidifier is used and therefore is no risk for mould growth. Prediction for a naturally ventilated crawl space with ACR of 1.5 shows that mould index will reach almost four and very close not to reach zero between different years, which indicates that mould index could start to increase between the years and cause problems.