zlacker

>>taraka+(OP)
For the entirety of my life, we've hung or clothes to dry inside. No dryer. No, they don't smell bad. Yes, even with small kids in the household. No, there is no problem with mold. No, it doesn't take forever, I'd estimate twelve hours most of the year, depending on how fast you spun them (typically 1200+ rpm).

Yes, the evaporating cools down the room, though I can't say I ever noticed it. In terms of energy efficiency compared to a dryer, it's much better in summer, and not much better in winter, though you get a humidifier as a freeby.

Yes, it's a chore, a full load takes about ten minutes to hang, and it's real boring work.

>>morsch+13
This very much depends on your local climate and the building itself.

Definitely not possible in the flat we live in during the winter unless we run a dehumidifier.

>>double+T3
Where do you live? Winter is when people traditionally use humidifiers because the air inside tends to be dry. (Cold air outside has a low absolute humidity, so relative humidity will be low when you heat it up inside.)

>>buzzde+O4
A lot of EU heats by steam/water radiators. These don't dry the air the same way forced air heating does.

You are right about absolute/relative humidity, but our basement feels damper in winter than summer.

>>mellav+r5
Forced air and radiators dry the air equally. Steam radiators sometimes can add humidity to the air it is limited and only when they are initially heating up before the valve closes. What causes dry air in the winter is the act of heating air up. Relative humidity is based on the temperature of the air, so if there is a fixed amount of water in the air, as you heat it the relative humidity goes down. So in the winter cold air slowly comes into the house via air leakage. This air is heated up which drops its relative humidity down. I have lived in houses with baseboard heat and with forced air, and recently converted my house from baseboard heat to forced air. There is no real difference in the relative humidity in the house.

>>sbradf+68
The way I understand this at the gut, conversational level, is by noticing that hot air can carry more water, therefore it will dry your skin faster, which is what "feels" like the air being dry.

Heating doesn't remove water from the air, as you explained. But that's what people assume when they argue that "heating doesn't dry the air" as I've heard in the past. Using relative humidity is a good explanation.

>>ihavea+A9
Even so, it does not explain why one method of heating the air would feel different than another, unless there is something physically different in their effects.

Radiant heat feels somewhat different than warm air, but if radiant heat from the radiators of a steam or water system is significant, would that not make them feel dryer? Our house has water radiators, and I do not notice the radiant heat from them.

I believe Retric's explanation is the correct one, given that human activity tends to increase the absolute humidity of interior air.