Race to the bottom

[fred]

I never was impressed by American building standards but this is scary

[David P]

answered by Martin Zak, Electrical Engineer, Mar 16, 2022

Brits will never understand this and will keep saying their houses are very well-built, they last for centuries and so on, but as a foreigner, I know very well what you mean. Yes, houses in Britain do last for centuries. So they’re not badly built in this meaning. It’s more about the quality.

Insulation is atrocious. Again, Brits will disagree, but when compared to other European countries (especially the ones where we have real winter), insulation is really poor. Building materials are often not really good and the emphasis is on price. Internal walls are almost exclusively drywalls, external walls are usually cavity walls using hollow bricks. Blocks like on the picture below (which are very common elsewhere and which are really great in terms of insulation) are rarely seen.

Windows. Many houses still have those ancient sash windows. Again, please explain how the houses are well insulated with sash windows. Last time I stayed at the hotel, there was a centimetre wide gap even when the window was closed. Besides, I still occasionally get a flyer in my mail advertising double glazing. I thought the rest of Europe was starting to implement triple glazing now…

Floors are usually made of wood. Honestly, with no exaggeration, I’ve never been to a house where floorboards don’t creak yet. Plus they are sometimes not completely level. But they are usually covered by carpets, so you can’t see it, but still, you often feel the floor is not even. Especially when you’re barefoot.

Plumbing. This is a chapter on its own, but what shocked me the most is this: [photo] Yes, it’s an old building (but aren’t they all?). It does occur on new ones from time to time as well, though.

Electrical installation? Very often Brits (especially on Quora) brag about having super safe regulations and the best plug in the world. Well, I’d be careful with the superlatives, but I don’t disagree in general. But a few things are really odd. First of all, pull cords in bathrooms instead of light switches? No, thanks. Then the question of sockets in bathrooms, many people here are convinced that people in countries like Germany, France or Italy are dying every day, because they have sockets in bathrooms. They even have washing machines there! That’s a big no-no in the UK. But a 12kW electric shower directly above the bathtub? Yeah, that’s perfectly normal. But the most peculiar thing these days would be the fact that practically every house here only has one phase. It causes other issues as well, but if we’re pushing on electric vehicles, well, good luck with one phase chargers.

Garages. They really are called garages, but even the newly built ones will hardly fit a car in.

One small detail, but quite quintessential. There are virtually no roof overhangs. I understand there is usually no rendering and it doesn’t snow much, but still, I find it personally much better to have some overhang and be able to stay dry when standing at the door looking for a key.

Then there are small things like separate water taps (the worst invention ever), door handles, funny hinges, no shutters, holes in doors instead of mailboxes and so on.

Of course there are houses that are absolutely spot on, nice and highly practical. Just like anywhere else. But in my opinion, majority of houses have at least some of these issues. And newly built houses usually have no corners left uncut.

I get it, different country, different habits. But surely, when the floor creaks, it shouldn’t be considered normal anywhere! This really gets me, when I was looking for a place to rent, I visited tens of properties. And usually the agent acts like they can’t see it and they have no idea what you’re talking about. You put a bottle on the floor and it rolls away. But they don’t understand why you don’t like it. It seems like everybody got used to mediocrity, or even substandard housing?

I love many things about Britain (especially music and raspberry trifle), overall I enjoy being here. But the quality of the housing stock is in my opinion not something to be proud of. After having lived in three other European countries and visiting many more, I’d say it’s really bad in Britain. Of course it can be (and outside of Europe often is) much worse, but that shouldn’t be a consolation.

[Brian Gaff]

I do agree with a lot of that. However there are things that matter and those which do not Creaking floors give a house character, in my view. We have creaking stairs. Certainly you are spot on with windows, Not very good at all. Also walls, but the part about electrics in bathrooms is a little more complicated. Showers are supposed to be designed for use in such places, and one would hope that standards of safety are very good. When it comes to other Appliances though. and this may well be the build quality of UK sold stuff, but I've had washing machines literally sparking inside due to poor manufacture allowing water leaks to get on the electronics. At leased the cases are mostly metal and earthed, making the safety a bit better. However abroad, well Spain actually finding TV sets in bathrooms mounted up the wall is not uncommon. Surely that is anything but safe. No I think all countries have their hazards and weaknesses. Brian

[Jonathan Harston]

And how many domestic applications needs a multiple-phase supply?

[Jim Stewart ...]

[Tim+]

On a 110/120V supply, probably more than here in the UK.

Tim

[Colin Bignell]

Why would we need insulation, when we have the Gulf Stream?

A legacy of WW2 and the need to build a lot of houses with a shortage of materials.

That is to let air in to feed the coal fire.

I've never had one where they do. That is simply a matter of good maintenance.

... Then the question of

Not if the bathroom is big enough.

That is because cars are getting bigger.

[Jonathan Harston]

Exactly!

[Max Demian]

[snip]

We have 240 volts so don't need thick cables for the power.

In the US they have 120-0-120 so they can have 240V for high power appliances. (Or 208V if they cheat by just taking 2 of the 3 phases -

120 * SQRT(3) = 208.)

Get a smaller car. Or park the car outside so it can be nicked and store junk in the garage.

Just have a cover or porch by the front door.

Water taps were all separate originally. Or just one for cold. They weren't an "invention" over mixer taps.

Lever door handles can be opened with wet hands or an elbow if you are carrying something.

Shutters are mostly fashion unless you are expecting a hurricane.

Letter flaps in the front door mean you can collect the mail in your jammies.

You must have viewed some ancient properties if you have had creaking, uneven floors. Perhaps in a 16th or 17th century half timbered thatched cottage like my aunt lived in.

[Tim Streater]

My house in the US had 110v for most things with a 240v supply for the washer/dryer. How this was managed in terms of phases I know not.

[Fredxx]

Given the norm is 240V split either side of neutral/ground it can't be much different to the UK?

[Max Demian]

Probably 120V rather than 110. A transformer is needed to change from 3 to 2 phase, unless they cheat by just taking 2 of the 3 phases, in which you get 208V (120 * SQRT(3)).

[Fredxx]

A transformer would take 2 phase conductors and convert to a single split-phase.

I'm pretty sure the 2 out of the 3 type of arrangement is for flats or similar co-located households being served by a single 3-phase transformer.

Transformers at 60Hz are more efficient than those designed for 50Hz. I blame the Germans for two world wars and 50Hz.

[Paul]

Household power is single-phase, center tapped.

hot neutral hot safety-ground (four pin plug, for large appliances, high power devices)

High power devices use both hots (hot to hot is twice the voltage, of hot to neutral).

Low power devices use a hot and a neutral (and a safety ground). The three pin plug is low power, the four pin plug is high power. The pins on the high power plug, are rather thick.

You try to "balance" the small loads on the two hots. No attempt is made to run everything off one hot, for the 110V stuff. If you had ten spurs in the house, five would be off one hot, and the other five off the other hot. This isn't an exact thing. Like if three of the five spurs were bedrooms, the average power use could be quite low.

The four pin plugs, hardly ever get moved. My electric clothes dryer is 30 years old, and has never had any maintenance.

*******

We have real honest-to-goodness three phase power here, but the land usage in the area is rated "industrial" where that exists. You can see some lines running through the woods, that are three phase. Near the public library, was a three phase line and pole structure.

Seeing "three tin cans" is a hint.

Paul

[The Natural Philosopher]

US 240V is just one phase, taken from both sidess of the centre tapped centre earthed transformer.

[The Natural Philosopher]

They aren't more efficient. Just a shade larger

[Fredxx]

Yes, as a consequence of being less efficient. To accommodate more turns at a specific wire cross-section, and to dissipate more heat.

If your definition of efficiency means bigger, more heat generation, heavier with more iron and copper, then I might see your point. However I don't know of a single engineer that would agree with you but might find some art students that do.

[Animal]

Some is true but most is just not.

[Jonathan Harston]

How is the US system different from the UK system here:

ta.

[Paul]

That picture is consistent with USA practice.

Three phases, single phase operation off one of the phases being possible.

It's just that we do not offer three phases to individual houses, as that's considered an "industrial" installation. Only a single phase meanders through the tops of the poles in my neighbourhood.

The wires for it, might be inside the substation, but are not connected in the neighbourhoods. (Substations come in different sizes, and mine is a small one. They're not even packaged in consistent ways. One looks like a barn. One is an open field design. Each "burns differently" when there is trouble :-) When the barn caught fire, they had to use self-contained breathing apparatus while repairing inside, in the dark and smoke. In Toronto they use underground vaults, so the staff do repairs in super-heated air from vault fires. The job can be a living hell.)

Details of our hierarchy and neighbourhood wiring practice, would be different.

The single-phase center-tapped, that gives 110V and 220V service at the same time, these are the pole transformers that do it. So we have transformers that are relatively close to homes. One of these cans would be shared by three homes. For rich guys like Al Gore, they use pad-mount transformers in a metal vault (no wires showing at all).

(Not in my neighbourhood, some office spaces use these. Neighbourhood ones generally do not show visible locks or hinges like this one. They're designed to not give scrotes any ideas.)

The transformer in those is tiny and sits in the bottom of the can. Most of the can is filled with oil, and some of the cans have fins or tubes on the outside, to augment convection cooling ability.

The tin cans come with three power ratings. If you can explain to the power company why you need one, they will fit you with a higher-power one for free. And that can would feed you and two neighbours. The yard where they store materials, would have a hundred spare creosote wooden poles and maybe a couple hundred of those tin can transformers. Some of those are sitting there, as they're recovered from upgrades. The number of spare tin cans, seems inconsistent with need. (Many times that a pole snaps off, all the goods on the pole are reused.)

And they can change those wooden poles pretty quickly. When a drunk driver snapped a pole off one night, the power was only off for two hours. And all the gubbins on the pole were moved to the new one. One of the trucks would have an auger for digging a hole for the replacement pole. I suspect today though, with the lethargy they exhibit, it would take 12-24 hours in the year 2022 to do the same work. But in the days of their peak performance, they could do one of those in only two hours. Impressed the hell outta me. The drunk driver even left his open beer bottle on the side of the road (beer bottle standing up) :-) He'd run away.

Paul