As far as I know, 32 WECA homes have crawl spaces. To prevent mold and mildew in the crawl space, it's important to install a humidity sensor and monitor its humidity. 50% is often mentioned as a nominal humidity level.

A humidity problem may arise when air entering the crawl space cools, which causes its relative humidity to rise. In the summer, it's necessary to prevent moist air from entering in the first place or to use a dehumidifier to reduce humidity levels.

HVAC systems are not all the same, and many factors contribute to crawl space humidity. Some commercial companies recommend encapsulation to seal off the crawl space entirely. Since that is extremely expensive, here are a few observations and suggestions for humidity control:

• Have your HVAC system and the crawl space inspected regularly. Have an indoor/outdoor thermometer installed to monitor crawl space humidity levels. Among the contractors commonly used are A1 in Newport and Bower (the original contractor) in Roanoke.

• Monitor your gutters and downspouts to ensure that water doesn't pool near the basement walls during storms. If that happens, go to the WECA website and file a Maintenance Care Work Order to have debris removed.

  https://www.woodsedgecondominiumassociation.com

• Monitor your crawl space humidity.  Measuring your humidity

• Placing a dehumidifier in our crawl space worked well for us to lower our humidity during the summer. Electricity costs about 14¢ per kilowatt hour, so if the dehumidifier runs constantly, it may cost as much as $2 per day, depending upon the model. Dehumidifiers are often a bit noisy.

• The door fan runs when the crawl space humidity is higher than the fan setting. When the fan runs it creates a vacuum in the crawl space. Some of the crawl space moisture might come from the ground. The purpose of the fan is to draw out that moist air. If the air that replaces it is cool low humidity air from your home, this is good. If the replacement air is warm moist air, this is bad. Since this is complicated, it's a good idea to monitor crawl space humidity.

• Depending upon building codes, some homes with gas furnaces have an outside vent that admits outside air directly into the furnace. Some homes also have a flapper vent in the furnace duct that bleeds a small amount of heated/cooled air from the furnace duct into the crawl space. That ducting may permit outside air to enter the crawl space. If your living space has high humidity, moist air may also enter your crawl space through the air return ducts.

• If you're running a dehumidifier, it's probably a good idea to leave the door fan off to minimize the entry of humid air into the crawl space.

Honeywell Dehumidifier

  

Furnace Fresh Air Vent, Gas Furnace Vents, Condensate Drain

Furnace and Condensate Pump

Air Bleed from Main Furnace Duct

Door Fan Control