Unless you do laundry for a small army, the amount of heating youll get from a dryer vent would be fairly minimal, as well as sporatic. The amount of heat from a couple loads a week would hard have much effect on keeping your basement warm.
That's half of the goal. Some people have mold risks, but many people don't.
Keeping the humidity higher in the winter than normal is good for the furniture. Especially pianos.
I live in Baltimore, plenty humid much of the summer, but then, that's not the season we're talking about.
I have done what you're talking about for 22 years with no ill effects.
No rust on any of my tools (although I did get rust when the line to kitchen sink broke and 50+ gallons of water poured into the basement from a dozen places in the ceiling. So my tools aren't magic.)
My basement and probably yours is like a heat sink and doesn't get that hot in the summer or that cold in the winter, but the humidity helps me feel comfortable in the whole house, and I'm sure the warmth makes some difference. I have a humidifier on the furnace, but there is a month or more in the fall and just as much time in the spring when the furnace is not on, but I need the humidity. And I vent the dryer inside all winter too.
Heck, they sell kits for this, that take a four-inch vent pipe or hose, and have a louver that goes from outside to inside, and includes a filter for when it is venting inside. It uses aluminum window screen. I have a filter in the dryer itself of course, so the filter in the air valve only requires cleaning every year or two. Of course i'm the only one doing his drying here, and my clothes don't have much lint.
I've had mold in one corner by the floor that was always wet, and at the base of one wall in the other room after the basement got wet, or the water heater burst. After the basement dried out, the mold stopped growing and then died. The dryer venting didn't cause it or make it worse.
Not all basements are alike, one would assume.
If I were in your shoes but cautious, I would try it for a while and come to my own conclusions.
Not THAT much water... I'm from MN where at times we heat the air 90 degrees higher than outside, causing incredibly dry conditions. But venting a dryer inside would cause terrible condensation issues. There are right and wrong ways to humidify a home...
-Tim
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