I forgot to mention- it is on the north side of the house and does not much, if any, sun.

Hi suggi, I can't tell from your description, but is the condensation on the storm window or on the inner window?

If on the storm window is it between the two lites or is it on the exterior of the storm (outside).

Did your husband caulk the inner window or the storm window?

Thanks

Oberon - I did a post with you in the title as I could not make this go through for some reason. This time it worked. Thanks for replying. The condensation is on the exterior of the inner window. There is no condensation inside the house and no condensation on the interior or exterior of the storm window. There is about a 3" gap between that large inner single pane window and the storm window

Hubby caulked the outside of the storm window because of all the bugs that were coming in and dying. He took off the storm window and cleaned everything out sometime last year and put the storm window back and caulked it including the little round space where the missing hinge was. The other hinges were fine.

On both sides of the large "fixed" single pane/storm window are small Harvey windows that open - they are part of the whole picture window package and were here when we moved in. There is no problem with them. Now hubby needs surgery for his neck/back problem according to the neurosurgeon and can't go out there and take out the window. I don't know who to call or who to get to do what. I would think if there is no gap (no more bugs in there) there would not be condensation either. I can't remember if there was any condensation in there during the winter but there has been a few times in the warmer weather when we have heavy rains and high humidity. I hate the sight of the droplets running down the inner window and I CAN'T GET AT THEM AS THEY ARE NOT INSIDE THE HOUSE...grr

Please, if you have any suggestions as I can't afford a whole new window now -- the whole thing including the narrow Harveys measures about 114" (Harveys are 18" each) but it looks like all go in one HUGE frame. HELP! I am in Massachusetts. It has cleared up now but we are in for another hot, rainy week into next week and I am worried.

Thanks.

Hi suggi,

You are getting condensation on the inner lite because it is cooler inside your home than outside, which is certainly not a big surprise this time of year.

You mentioned that the weep holes in the storm window are open? Is this a wooden storm or metal? And can you describe the weep holes, please?

It sounds like you may have a bit of moisture "trapped" in the space between the inner window and the storm window, and that the dew point in that space is high enough so that even at 76° inside your home temperature your glass temperature is under the dew point - which then would result in condensation on the "cooler" inner glass.

We need to determine if you have air exchange between the the outside world and that airspace.

Or, it could also be possible that the outside dew point is simply so high that the air entering the space is carrying a lot of moisture with the same result that the dew point is higher than the temperature of the glass.

In which case it might prove to be advantageous to temporarily seal the space when the air is at its "driest" and see if that helps when the temp and RH go back up.

So first, if you wouldn't mind replying to my earlier questions, we can go from there.

An excellent response by oberon. To add some additional comments that may prove helpful, I assume that you are experiencing much more condensation problems since the caulking has been applied. The difference in the condition, from before and after the caulking procedure, is that you have now minimized the amount of air flow that previously evacuated the moist air between the storm panel and fixed window by use of a caulk seal.

I may also assume that the weep holes are allowing some ventilation, which is delivering the moist air into the air space during your heavy rains. With a lack of air movement within the air space, the moist air will remain for longer periods of time.

A simple solution would require a determination of which nuisance you'd rather accept, bugs or condensation. If the former is preferred, simply remove the caulk and recreate the air movement you previously experienced. Otherwise, unless the storm panel is hinged appropriately, it may be difficult to ventilate the air space during your humid summer months. As you've seen between the caulked and uncaulked conditions, it does not take much ventilation to evacuate the moisture in the air space.