Can Buildings Take Vacation Too?

What sort of moisture issues should we be concerned about if a building is “shut down” for an extended period of time, either due to an extended power outage or because the building will be unoccupied for a while? In this Building – Wright article, building scientist Peter Yost discusses the ways that a building can get wet, either from liquid water or from water vapor, and how these processes are affected when the power and water are shut off and the building is unheated. To test some of his theories and find out what actually happens to the moisture profile in a Vermont home that would be unoccupied for a winter season, Yost installed four HOBO temperature and relative humidity data loggers in the home last fall. After retrieving the data loggers sometime in April 2020, Yost promises to report what he thinks will be the first published data on the temperature and relative humidity profile of a home on hygrothermal vacation.