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

>>double+76
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.

>>Broken+f8
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.

>>bluGil+zc
Central heating is fairly uncommon in Norway.

>>varjag+Ie
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.

>>bluGil+z31
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.