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London. Cold enough that anything in an old Victorian building won't dry but warm enough that the air remains humid.

zarzavat 4y ago
It’s worse if you live in a well insulated energy-efficient building. In winter it’s cold so nobody wants to open the windows. The lack of ventilation means that the moisture has nowhere to go and just accumulates.
- morsch 4y ago
  We're in central Europe. A few degrees colder than London in Winter, I doubt it matters. I've done it in houses built a hundred years ago (though they were modernized since, obviously) and ones that were build recently with high degrees of insulation (almost but not quite passive). Not an issue. I usually did open the windows for a couple of minutes.
- roter 4y ago
  Shouldn't be if your building was designed properly, with a proper Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV) e.g. [0]. The long and short of it, fresh air is slightly heated by stale outgoing moist air. [0] https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/energy-efficiency/products/product-information/cooling-and-ventilating-equipment-for-residential-use/heatenergy-recovery-ventilators/16197 https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/energy-efficiency/products/product-i...
Broken_Hippo 4y ago
I dunno about that - I live in Norway. Most folks dry their clothes inside for most of the year. They take a little longer to dry in the winter, but it really isn't an issue.
- dagw 4y ago
  Having lived in both Norway and England, Norwegian houses are much warmer and drier indoors during the winter. Every house in England I lived in was damp, basically uninsulated and had terrible heating systems.
- bluGill 4y ago
  London has an interesting climate - despite being fairly far north it doesn't get that cold in winter. It is common there to not have whole house heating. Norway isn't far London, but it is enough worse a climate that pretty much everyone has some form of central heating and keeps their house warm year round. For this discussion is means that in London the indoor climate is livable, but terrible for trying clothes, while in Norway the indoor climate is nice and drying clothes indoors is helpful for adding humidity.
  - varjag 4y ago
    Central heating is fairly uncommon in Norway.
    - bluGill 4y ago
      I haven't been to Norway, but I've been to Sweden which seems like it should be similar. All houses there have central heating. Maybe you are thinking about district heating? There are a few places in the world where the heat for an entire town comes from the same plant and is piped around. This is also called central heating which makes it confusing, thought district heating is the more correct term from what I can tell. I'm talking about a single heating system that handles the whole house, not a system that handles the whole town.
      - Broken_Hippo 4y ago
        No, they aren't. Most houses that I've been in have electric heating, but not central heating. Folks heat each room seperately. Occasionally, it is baseboard heat. More commonly, it is portable heaters or electric panel heaters hung on a wall and plugged into a socket. Heated floors in the restroom are fairly common. I personally have a small attic apartment in Trondheim (Norway). It has bathroom floor heat and came with one wall panel: I actually just use one oil-filled electric radiator and keep a fairly cool bedroom. Wood heating is pretty common too - one of the scents of fall is the lighting of fireplaces. That said, more central heating is starting to become popular in the form of heat pumps, but I honestly only know one person that has one - and they are on a farm in the countryside instead of here in the city.
dopidopHN 4y ago
I lived for years in Paris. Dryer don’t exists there. You just don’t have space for one … Is the weather THAT different in London ?
- mlindner 4y ago
  > I lived for years in Paris. Dryer don’t exists there. You just don’t have space for one … Is the weather THAT different in London ? Do you not have space for a washing machine either? In many apartments in the US the dryer is stacked on top of the washing machine. It doesn't consume any additional space.
  - NeoTar 4y ago
    I can't speak for Paris, but often in UK apartments the washing machine will be in the kitchen under the counter, so above them is counter-space.
    - mlindner 4y ago
      The washing machine is in the kitchen? Where's the dishwasher supposed to go then? In the US under the kitchen counter is where the dishwasher sits.
      - NeoTar 4y ago
        In a large enough kitchen you have both! In a smaller kitchen it’s more likely that the dishwasher will be sacrificed than the washing machine (since it can be replaced with a sink)
  - dopidopHN 4y ago
    Yeah I actually have one like that in my US flat. It would not have fit in my first Parisian flat. ( to be fair… nothing was really fitting there ) Also when you rent a unfurnished place in France it’s empty-empty. There is no frige/oven/washer/drier combo like in a US non-furnish rental. In my personal case I saw a drier as yet another anoying piece of furniture I would have to deal with when moving

It’s worse if you live in a well insulated energy-efficient building. In winter it’s cold so nobody wants to open the windows. The lack of ventilation means that the moisture has nowhere to go and just accumulates.

morsch 4y ago
We're in central Europe. A few degrees colder than London in Winter, I doubt it matters. I've done it in houses built a hundred years ago (though they were modernized since, obviously) and ones that were build recently with high degrees of insulation (almost but not quite passive). Not an issue. I usually did open the windows for a couple of minutes.
roter 4y ago
Shouldn't be if your building was designed properly, with a proper Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV) e.g. [0]. The long and short of it, fresh air is slightly heated by stale outgoing moist air. [0] https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/energy-efficiency/products/product-information/cooling-and-ventilating-equipment-for-residential-use/heatenergy-recovery-ventilators/16197 https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/energy-efficiency/products/product-i...

Broken_Hippo 4y ago

I dunno about that - I live in Norway. Most folks dry their clothes inside for most of the year. They take a little longer to dry in the winter, but it really isn't an issue.

dagw 4y ago
Having lived in both Norway and England, Norwegian houses are much warmer and drier indoors during the winter. Every house in England I lived in was damp, basically uninsulated and had terrible heating systems.
bluGill 4y ago
London has an interesting climate - despite being fairly far north it doesn't get that cold in winter. It is common there to not have whole house heating. Norway isn't far London, but it is enough worse a climate that pretty much everyone has some form of central heating and keeps their house warm year round. For this discussion is means that in London the indoor climate is livable, but terrible for trying clothes, while in Norway the indoor climate is nice and drying clothes indoors is helpful for adding humidity.
- varjag 4y ago
  Central heating is fairly uncommon in Norway.
  - bluGill 4y ago
    I haven't been to Norway, but I've been to Sweden which seems like it should be similar. All houses there have central heating. Maybe you are thinking about district heating? There are a few places in the world where the heat for an entire town comes from the same plant and is piped around. This is also called central heating which makes it confusing, thought district heating is the more correct term from what I can tell. I'm talking about a single heating system that handles the whole house, not a system that handles the whole town.
    - Broken_Hippo 4y ago
      No, they aren't. Most houses that I've been in have electric heating, but not central heating. Folks heat each room seperately. Occasionally, it is baseboard heat. More commonly, it is portable heaters or electric panel heaters hung on a wall and plugged into a socket. Heated floors in the restroom are fairly common. I personally have a small attic apartment in Trondheim (Norway). It has bathroom floor heat and came with one wall panel: I actually just use one oil-filled electric radiator and keep a fairly cool bedroom. Wood heating is pretty common too - one of the scents of fall is the lighting of fireplaces. That said, more central heating is starting to become popular in the form of heat pumps, but I honestly only know one person that has one - and they are on a farm in the countryside instead of here in the city.

dopidopHN 4y ago

I lived for years in Paris. Dryer don’t exists there. You just don’t have space for one … Is the weather THAT different in London ?

mlindner 4y ago
> I lived for years in Paris. Dryer don’t exists there. You just don’t have space for one … Is the weather THAT different in London ? Do you not have space for a washing machine either? In many apartments in the US the dryer is stacked on top of the washing machine. It doesn't consume any additional space.
- NeoTar 4y ago
  I can't speak for Paris, but often in UK apartments the washing machine will be in the kitchen under the counter, so above them is counter-space.
  - mlindner 4y ago
    The washing machine is in the kitchen? Where's the dishwasher supposed to go then? In the US under the kitchen counter is where the dishwasher sits.
    - NeoTar 4y ago
      In a large enough kitchen you have both! In a smaller kitchen it’s more likely that the dishwasher will be sacrificed than the washing machine (since it can be replaced with a sink)
- dopidopHN 4y ago
  Yeah I actually have one like that in my US flat. It would not have fit in my first Parisian flat. ( to be fair… nothing was really fitting there ) Also when you rent a unfurnished place in France it’s empty-empty. There is no frige/oven/washer/drier combo like in a US non-furnish rental. In my personal case I saw a drier as yet another anoying piece of furniture I would have to deal with when moving