Comments by "Cassette Walkman" (@DiscoFang) on "Why Japan Doesn't Heat Homes with Central Heating in Winter" video.

@adamwiggins9865 Mold is a huge problem in Japanese houses of the style he shows he grew up in. The high humidity, their habit of drying laundry indoors, storing bedding in badly ventilated closets and condensation forming on the inside surfaces means mustiness and mold is a constant smell in many older houses. Unfortunately the tatami flooring holds moisture too. Edit: And it's usual for ground floor levels to either be built directly on dirt or with crawl spaces (and "crawl" is just a notional name) that are poorly or non-ventilated gaps measured in inches.
26
@teresalehtonen8499 Yep. And this habit of drying clothes indoors on racks without outside ventilation only adds to the moisture problem. But you have to realise how different the moisture problem that high humidity in winter is from the dry winters of Finland. The construction technology is TOTALLY different and applying cold climate construction methods to a temperate or "maritime" climate actually creates worse problems for the building. It's only relatively recently that proper heating, insulation and ventilation has been possible at relatively low budgets in these climates. Ventilation of moisture in winter is the problem.
4
You could easily be describing the average New Zealand house. Thankfully the last 20 years has seen massive improvements but even still it's like living in the 1800's for the majority.
4
Hahaha the choice of language describes it perfectly. "Surviving" versus living nicely.
4
@duudsuufd You can set underfloor heating to whatever Goldilocks temperature you desire.
4
My best friend has a house in the Minakami area in Gunma where the temperatures are very similar to your description. It's juts above the all-winter snow line and it's been a long process of updating and replacing all the doors and windows with double glazed units and relining and insulating room by room. Most of the house is a 250 year old peg and beam building that was shifted from Yokohama years ago. The outside walls are just 2 inch thick stucco and fibers panels between the beams and posts and the window condensation would be sheets of ice in the mornings. Many of the local older houses have walls that are literally one layer of corrugated roofing iron. They breed the farmers tough round there.
2
@duudsuufd It’s radiant heat. It’s a giant radiator. You don’t lose heat to higher proportions of heated air high in the room that convection based heating does.
2
@mikefiatx19 British do not have baths at anywhere near the temperature that is normal for Japanese. And generally the older generation of Japanese bathe in even hotter water. It really is extreme how hot their baths and onsen are. A friend got laughed at and called "weak insect" by the old men in a tiny public Onsen we went to in a village in central Japan. Those guys were hilarious and very welcoming to us tho.
1
@mikefiatx19 Sure if believing that helps you comprehend there are cultural differences between countries on opposite sides of the world. Heck, why not go even further and pretend they have different words for everything.
1
@tayloranderson456 Where pipes are exposed to the air like to bathroom, toilet and to kitchen fittings, it's common to have the pipes insulated and with a low wattage heating wire.
1