Hot water tap and cold water tap
One of the first things that shocks the tidy new comer in the UK is how difficult is to wash his hands: he has to rapidly move his hands from under a tap yielding cold water to under another one yielding boiling water!. New comer, do not think we are behind the rest of the world in tap-wise technology. There is a reason for not having only one tap providing cold and hot water mixed in order to provide a comfortable temperature: bacteria.
This is the reason to this two-tap thing I have been given: In the case a boiler does not work properly resulting in the water in the tank being warm rather than being very hot, some kind of dangerous bacteria can grow in that tank. Now, if this is the case at some premises where the hot water carries more pressure than the cold water and both circuits (hot and cold) are connected at some point through a mixing tap, hot water carrying bacteria can run into the cold water circuit, back into the mains and spread to neighbours.
All this sounds fine BUT there is a question I would like to know the answer: why is it that this risk of bacteria contamination seems not to exist in many other countries I have visited (for example Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain)??? I can assure you that washing your hands there is much easier and is burn risk-free.
This is the reason to this two-tap thing I have been given: In the case a boiler does not work properly resulting in the water in the tank being warm rather than being very hot, some kind of dangerous bacteria can grow in that tank. Now, if this is the case at some premises where the hot water carries more pressure than the cold water and both circuits (hot and cold) are connected at some point through a mixing tap, hot water carrying bacteria can run into the cold water circuit, back into the mains and spread to neighbours.
All this sounds fine BUT there is a question I would like to know the answer: why is it that this risk of bacteria contamination seems not to exist in many other countries I have visited (for example Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain)??? I can assure you that washing your hands there is much easier and is burn risk-free.
posted by admin at
22:48
2 Comments:
I think its down to the type of heating. many British houses seem to use a rather old fashioned (not to menton inefficient system), whyby water is heated in a tank and stored there untill needed. Everyhouse lived in in the Netherlands had a modern gas boiler system, with the water being heated on demand, and in some cities, the water is actualy heated in a near by heating plant, which removes the need for large numbers of gas boilers in houses in the city centre (and with it a potential fire hazard), and allows water to be heated centraly, more efficiently.
An added bonus is that its very hard to run out of hot water, which seems to happen quite alot in British houses with the older tank system ([issed me off to no end as a student).
Interesting blog btw. I'm British, but i grew up in the Netherlands, and although i've been back here for the best part of a decade, there is still lots of stuff i look and and think "why!!?".
This sounds like a good idea. I also hear that in some places of the continent they use the waste heat in power stations to heat water that is then pumped to the near cities. This saves a lot of energy.
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