zlacker

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+(OP)
Central heating is fairly uncommon in Norway.

>>bluGil+(OP)
Note that Oslo is at 59.9 degrees northern latitude, while London is at 51.5 degrees northern latitude. Going the same 8.4 degrees south from London takes you to the Pyrenees, or Florence.

>>varjag+92
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+0R
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.