Building wall humidity control system

Abstract

The invention relates to a system (and devices) for controlling the moisture in wood frame building walls by controlled forced ventilation. The object of the invention is to improve the long term structural performance of the wall by keeping the moisture in the wall cavity below acceptable levels. The invention can also be used to help identify possible water related breaches or defects in the wall at specific locations.

Having thus defined my invention, the embodiment of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:  
     
         1 . An improvement to control moisture in an exterior load bearing wall construction having a plurality of stud members connected to specially constructed lower plate and upper plate structural headers, inner and outer wall portions and in the stud spaces thus defined, moisture/humidity probes, insulation spacers and batt insulation are installed such that if the moisture in the framing members or the humidity of the air in the stud space exceed predetermined values, a moisture/humidity control mechanism actuates a fan that draws regulated interior air from the living space, forces it into the headers and gaps thus created and exhausts it to the exterior by means of exhaust ports and continues to operate until such time as the predetermined values are reached and upon reaching same, the mechanism then shuts off the fan.  
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the lower plate and upper plate headers are non-structural, base board and crown molding headers installed externally to the wall construction, inside of which the insulation spacers are omitted.  
     
     
         3 . The systems of  claim 1  or  claim 2  wherein the moisture/humidity control mechanism contains a manual override setting to enable manual operation independent of the probes.