When you have the heating on and you have wet clothes on the radiators, dry clothes or nothing, does it impact the amount of heat dispersed to heat your home?

Question

Are the clothes absorbing some of the heat or do they absorb it and just release it anyway to your home so it doesn’t make a difference what is on top of the radiator.

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

There will be the same amount of heat in the room (from the radiator! The water will bring some extra heat into the room, even if it feels cold!). But it will feel hotter without the water, because the feeling of “hotness” doesn’t tell you how much heat (energy) there is in the room, but how much your body absorbs (from the air). Water has a high energy capacity, which means that it will absorb a lot of energy before giving off any. Air on the other hand has a low energy capacity. Air that feels hot may have less heat/energy than water that still feels cold.