posted 6 years ago
Howdy everyone !
Riffing off what Glenn Herbert said. Traditional houses were not designed for the kind of water intensive lives we now lead. In modern houses the wet areas, baths, kitchens, are inside. Cooking produces an immense amount of water vapor, so does bathing. Not to mention the general water vapor from our respiration. Traditional houses everywhere had no vapor barrier and were generally built of vapor permeable materials. The thing is, the ways of life in the past were quite different from ours.
Some estimates are that an average family of four releases about 3 gallons of water a day in pure humidity, just vapor. Some lifestyle choices may actually release more.
In the modern world we shower, cook and boil water at home, and the amount of water we sometimes use is prodigious. A fun experiment is put a large plastic tub or bucket in your bath tub or shower stall, aim the shower nozzle at it so that most of the water hits it, and let the shower run for 10 minutes. Take a funnel, and a couple of one gallons milk jugs or pitcher. Pour all of the water into a jug or pitcher until its full, then go empty it on the houseplants or garden. Count the number of times you fill up a jug. We do that every day in taking a bath.
Traditional houses do allow air and water vapor to move freely, there is a thermal cost but people tended to insulate their bodies, wearing more or less layers of clothing. Also space radiant heating was more common. Even in the 20th century, up until recently whole house heating was a middle class or wealthy luxury. Older poorer houses had gas space heaters, or even coal and wood stoves. Up until the 1960s and 70s coal and wood stoves were an economic necessity, not a lifestyle choice, for millions of Americans. People "bundled up" in the winter. In the summer they opened windows and doors, which encouraged air circulation. Poor thermal performance, even in an age not concerned with the ecological impacts of our energy use, was not a major factor. People probably consumed less fuel with their stoves and fireplaces. Radiant bed pans with coals were common up until the 1930s and 40s.
Today our lifestyles are quite different. We don't bundle up and self insulate indoors during the winter, unless we are poor. Whole house gas or electric heating is the norm. Our bodies are used to operating at different temperature ranges than our parents or grandparents, much less than great grandparents. And we bathe a lot more. I think that's a good thing, but it has an impact that needs to be considered.
In the western world, if we look at old house plans and descriptions from 18th and 19th century American houses then something that may hit us is that it wasn't uncommon for kitchens to be in basements, or sheds in the back. Sometimes cooking was also done at a central hearth/fireplace. It depended. But toilet/waste relieving facilities and bathing (when rarely done) were always outside. People bathed in rivers, water holes, or wooden and later metal tubs out back. They used out houses. In Urban houses, when bathing was (rarely) done you may have had a small metal tub and the amount of water actually used was small. Only the rich had large bathtubs. Showers did not exist. Remember, showers aspirate water and hot showers generate a lot of vapor.
In some parts of rural Europe cooking was done in a detached place, but in many others and in typical urban European houses however the cooking was done at the central hearth. Either way a lot of water vapor just goes up the chimney or hearth hole in the roof. As for bathing, when rarely done, it was done in facilities outside. In some European cities from the late Middle Ages on you also had communal bathhouses. Up until very recently, after World War I really, people tended to do one weekly Saturday bath. Even after World War I people didn't bathe as often as we do today. My grandmother was a depression baby, she "washed up" with a wash cloth at the bathroom sink, just scrubbing her arms, legs, face and other parts most days. She only took a real bath a couple of times a week. My siblings and I lived with our grandmother for a few years in my childhood and the first thing she did was teach us how to "wash up" and stop all of that gosh awful water wasting by bathing daily like our parents insisted.
Outside of the West, in Japan and parts of East Asia communal bathhouses, sometimes in Buddhist temples, were used. People did not bathe at home unless they were part of the social elite. In the Middle East, North Africa and the general Arab world cooking was often done in a central courtyard - and hence an outdoor space. Bathing was done at communal "hammam" bathhouses. The bathhouse was one of the main social spheres, outside of the cofeehouse and mosque, in which people met, gossiped, and socialized. When bathing was done at home, the "ghusl" or bath was done with about one or two liters of water, about half slowly poured over each side of the body, with olive oil soap, scrubbing with a luffah, and then the remaining poured over, with tooth brushing and rinsing the nostrils with a quick sniff of water. So the amounts of water used were small, hence the amount of water vapor dispersed small. (in fact Old people still bathe this way even in cities, in some parts of North Africa and the middle east. Even in modern houses with showers they may have a small plastic tub and small ibrik, or water pitcher. Younger generations shower Western style though...)
You will find similar in many old world urban cultures, we don't even have to look at rural areas. People generated less water vapor, and did vapor intensive activities in different parts of their house than we do today. We live more thermally intensive lives today, we need more heat for our comfort, and we choose to cook and bathe in our intimate living spaces. In exchange for thermal efficiency we must tolerate amounts of water vapor that facilitate mold growth, poor air quality, and condensation. The solution is ventilation. Whether we can do this mechanically or passively is a different mater, but vapor barriers, insulation, and aggressive ventilation are requirements for us today.
I could be seeing things incorrectly and welcome thoughts and feedback!
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