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 Originally Posted by OngBonga
I just wonder if heating a room is an effective method of stopping mould from taking hold. Warmer air holds more water vapour, so while water volume in air goes up with temperature due to increased evaporation, relative humidity goes down.
But if mould is taking water right out of the air, then warmer air will allow it to colonise faster, so I'm wondering whether it's better to have warm air or cool air when it comes to fighting mould.
Intuition tells me warm air, but I'm not sure.
Temperature is not really relevant, as you've pointed out, it's humidity and condensation. I'm not sure if it's about absolute humidity or relative humidity. I'm certain that temperature matters at extremes, but not sure what counts as extreme to a mold.
A dehumidifier would be best, but really, they produce a huge amount of heat, and can be really unpleasant if they're in the room with you. An AC unit must reduce the humidity below the dew point before it can cool the air below the saturation temp. So using an AC on high is a way to drive down humidity. You can put a space heater in the same room and leech the moisture out of walls, ceilings, floors, furniture, etc. It's not a super-fast process, though, and it's expensive to run a heater and an AC in the same space, obv.
If you are dealing with an established mold colony, and not just using preventative measures, then treat affected areas with Hydrogen Peroxide (not bleach, bleach is too aggressive and has a very high chance of producing airborne mold when used) and don't spray the mold directly. Spray near it and wipe the H2O2 across the moldy area. Inhaling mold spores is bad news. You want to minimize airborne mold especially when cleaning it up. It can kill you if you inhale too much mold. It's no joke. Acute mildew inhalation poisoning happened to a roommate of mine once and he was inpatient hospitalized for a week.
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