Laundry Plus Heating?

[AdamCrock]

Russians more hard core. Also colder the extra cheese can double as insulation.

There's a joke about how Americans developed a ball-pen that can write in space for 1 million $ , the Russians just took pencils with them ....

 

[Zardnaar]

There's a joke about how Americans developed a ball-pen that can write in space for 1 million $ , the Russians just took pencils with them ....

Yeah some jokes are fairly universal I heard that one pre internet.

It's like the Italian tank joke.

 

[AdamCrock]

Yeah some jokes are fairly universal I heard that one pre internet.

It's like the Italian tank joke.

I don't know the Italian tank joke , please do tell !

 

[Cutlass]

Number of years ago I relocated a basement laundry to a main floor entry room/pantry. So washer and drier on main floor. Clothes line outdoors is rarely used, except for oversized things. Clothes line in the basement is not used for laundry, but rather to dry out things that got rained on and will be used again before going into the laundry, like wet coats. Heat is gas forced air for the whole house. Heating bills are pretty low because I replaced all the windows and doors with good quality energy efficient models.

 

[Zardnaar]

I don't know the Italian tank joke , please do tell !

Sorry it's French tanks but I've heard both.

Heard about the latest Italian tank? 1 forward gear, 4 reverse.

I've had Germans, Americans English etc tell that joke.

The Russian pencil in space joke was around in the 90s at least pre internet. Heard it at school.

Americans had Polish jokes same jokes were here replacing the Poles with Irish.

 

[AdamCrock]

Sorry it's French tanks but I've heard both.

Heard about the latest Italian tank? 1 forward gear, 4 reverse.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Our house has central heating, but I'm not sure it currently works. I know years ago there was some issue with the pilot light. I forget whether we ever got that fixed.

Generally in the winter we just dress more warmly and use electric space heaters in the rooms were we spend the most time. Here is Georgia is does not get cold enough often enough for long enough for it to be a big deal.

Dad used to like to use the fireplace in our living room in the winter months, but we've never had our chimney swept and he now suspects it might not be safe. Personally I think a bigger fire hazard is how horribly cluttered and dusty that room is. It is hard to clean as dad still has now gone through boxes of old tax papers he brought home when he retired closed down his accounting firm.



We have a working washing machine and dryer. They are getting old and not all of their settings work anymore, but they are usually fine if we don't overfill them.

We used to have clothes lines in our back yard, but the posts holding them up fell over a few years ago. I'm not sure we ever used them before that anyway. They were just left over from the previous home owner.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Hmm... Not sure you'd even need the solar clothesline.

Would throwing your wet laundry into an airlock-chamber, and then depressurising it to vacuum (without actually opening it to space), cause instant evaporation of (most of) the water...? Or would the clothes just freeze into planks?

(But yes, hobbs, I know that in practice, on a real space station, water and air are still too precious to waste like that!)

The water would boil off the clothes as the pressure reached zero if you pumped out the air in the chamber, and that water vapor would be carried out as a gas with the rest of the air. Once that water vapor is out in space, it will freeze into microscopic ice crystals. Basically the airlock chamber itself will stay warm enough that the water will boil to gas if it stays inside the chamber, but if you dumped the water out into space and it is not directly lit by the sun, it will freeze. If you throw open the airlock door so that it has a view to space, it will eventually cool off but not fast enough to cause the water to flash-freeze in place.

 

[warpus]

Nobody here hangs up their clothes to dry. Back in the home country the stereotype was that old grandmothers hang out things to dry like that, and I think the device that you hang these on also had a slang name that alluded to the fact that it was grandmother owned and operated.

Having said that, my mother used to do this back in Poland, but these days it's just easier to use the dryer, instead of allowing the whole neighbourhood to see the colour of your underwear and your teenage mutant ninja turtle themed socks

 

[red_elk]

You don't have to hang it outside. Many people use lines or folding rack above bathtub.

 

[warpus]

You don't have to hang it outside. Many people use lines or folding rack above bathtub.

Here it's more common to see that sort of thing on balconies, if at all. Most people have a dryer, and it doesn't cost much to use (in terms of the electricity used).

There are some fabrics that you shouldn't dry like that (and it is recommended to "tumble"), so for those I actually do hang them up in my bedroom. It's all my hiking and athletic performance sort of clothing. I'll tumble it and then hang it up to dry around my bedroom. At that point these fabrics are on their way to dryness - since they are more or less designed to dry fast. So no water ends up dripping on the floor, or maybe it does but in minimal amounts.

 

[Oerdin]

Dumb question here. How do you wash your clothes, dry them and keep yourself warm?

I was reading an article about NZs low quality housing and by that they mean a lack of central heating.

Some here have also posted about going to laundromats which is a bit weird.

As I said dumb question but something so basic might be done differently overseas.

Since I was a kid you hang your washing out online. Some people use dryers I suppose. We have one barely use it.

No central heating here. As a kid we used a heater or open fireplace. You could roast marshmallows in your lounge.

These days we use a heat pump but only heat one room in the house. The bedroom is not heated even in winter and if it's freezing outside. Literally freezing ice on windows type cold.

Right now it's spring and 6 degrees celsius outside. Rain,hail cold. Heat pump isn't on, I checked it's setting and it's on 20 degrees but hasn't been on.

Wearing a teashirt, jeans and flannelette shirt. I might put on a jersey or sweatshirt if its below 10 degrees celsius, barely use a jacket only in the rain of if there's a southerly (wind off antarctica).

As I understand it central heating is those water/oil mounted heaters in the wall. Had them at school as a kid but yeah. These days it's mostly heat pumps, woodburner or maybe gas (more commercial).

The idea of using waste heat is a nice one though I confess we rarely have our washer and drier going in the middle of a cold snap as usually that happens late at night here and it would be inconvenient to do laundry at 2am. However we have central heating and AC in our home so maybe New Zealand should concentrate on improving building codes to help reduce substandard housing conditions?

 

[Zardnaar]

The idea of using waste heat is a nice one though I confess we rarely have our washer and drier going in the middle of a cold snap as usually that happens late at night here and it would be inconvenient to do laundry at 2am. However we have central heating and AC in our home so maybe New Zealand should concentrate on improving building codes to help reduce substandard housing conditions?

We have, new houses are fine.

They basically made it illegal to build cheap houses.

We haven't really had the urban renewal you get overseas. Walking in the CBD the building facades for example aren't that drastically different from 80 years ago.

Housing is similar, students here can live in renovated Victorian villas.

New houses tend to be in the edges of the towns and cities.

Part of that is also due to bureaucracy. It can be illegal to tear down old buildings, old being more than 70 years or so.

We need to renovate the bathroom, kitchen and do some work in the outside. Or might just sell it and buy a newer house idk.

 

[Birdjaguar]

In NZ we've figured out how to wear underwear for a month.

Wear it normally for a week and then put it on back to front for the next week.

Scrape them off and turn them inside out then repeat the front to back process again viola 4 weeks.

Or one could just rinse them out at night and let them dry overnight.

 

[Zardnaar]

Or one could just rinse them out at night and let them dry overnight.

You ownore than 2 pair? You is rich.

 

[MaryKB]

Wearing your same pair of panties for more than a day is beyond disgusting.

 

[Cutlass]

You don't have to hang it outside. Many people use lines or folding rack above bathtub.

Not everyone has a basement, or have it accessible if they do. But a basement is a good place to put up clothes lines. Last apartment I lived in there was a large area of clothes lines in the basement. The boiler kept the air warm and dry.

 

[Zardnaar]

Wearing your same pair of panties for more than a day is beyond disgusting.

This was actually an issue in army training. Alpine hike for a week.

Guys didn't care to much the women did.

It was up to you how much you wanted to carry I think they recommend 3 sets.

 

[Zardnaar]

Not everyone has a basement, or have it accessible if they do. But a basement is a good place to put up clothes lines. Last apartment I lived in there was a large area of clothes lines in the basement. The boiler kept the air warm and dry.

Basements here usually under the house and it's basically dirt.

 

[Cutlass]

Basements here usually under the house and it's basically dirt.

Depends on the age of the house. If it was built after WWII it's either concrete or cement blocks. For 50 years before that it was probably brick. Which means that well over 90% of the total housing stock that actually has a basement does not have a dirt one.

But not all houses are built with basements.