I have a theory that if all sink and tub and toilet drains were just a little wider that most plumbing problems would disappear.
The current codes have things like 1-1/2 sink traps allowed, which then go into maybe a 3" wall pipe. If the sink drain were, say 2-3/4 inches wide, it would take many times as long to get a hair clog, and then with a wide pipe the clog would be easy to plunge away. Since pipe is the cheapest part of all plumbing, the extra cost would be covered by the first emergency plumbing call.
If we remodel our kitchen, the county will force us to bring it to current codes. This means general lighting must be fluorescent and on a different circuit than receptacles.
Receptacles - hoo boy! There must be lots of them and they all have to be GFI-protected. (I have no complaint with that) I do have quarrel with the number required, which is based on a formula involving room square feet and individual sections of countertop. So, I need three 20-amp circuits for “convenience” outlets.
So much needs to be on its own dedicated line. The dishwasher, fridge, disposer, and over-range microwave need their own lines.
Net result is needing a sub-panel just for the kitchen as the original breaker panel only has one 20-amp kitchen circuit and not enough space for the requisite nine new breakers and their circuits.
And the alternative is what? Use of extension cords? Tripping breakers because they’re regularly being loaded beyond safe capacity? Even if you don’t plan to have that much running at once, the rules are based on how Joe Average uses electricity.
Not too often do you read of someone dying because undersized floor joists made their house collapse, or some guy drowning because his house was fitted with shoddy plumbing. Can’t say the same thing about fires of electrical origin, can you?
Were I the grand Poo-Bah of Code Promulgation, sprinklers would be mandatory for new construction of anything bigger than a milk crate, and retrofitting of all existing structures would also be mandatory within 5 years.
My plumber uncle though so, back in 1975, when I helped him replace my parents kitchen plumbing. He also said dishwashers were a major source of unnecessary kinking in pipes, causing the accumulation of garbage which inevitably clog pipes.
My uncle got his friend to replace our old service panel too. When the hot water heater used to come on while my mother was using the oven, the *entire *house’s circuit breaker would trip
I’ve been mulling over the idea of attempting to introduce 240V service to the American home via building codes. I feel sort of like a backwater compared to the rest of the world.
Yes, most homes already have 240V service at the breaker, but it doesn’t get out to any outlets, only major appliances like electric ovens and dryers. Things like hairdryers, toasters, vacuums all use a tone of current at 120V and connection problems can cause fires since the current is so high. Require a number of 240V outlets in each kitchen, bathroom and common space and actually come up with a high quality outlet design for them, instead of our ancient 120V outlet design. Maybe a 4 wire design that would allow a simple 120V converter to be attached.
If you get a working population of 240V outlets out there, companies can start selling high draw appliances that use the higher voltage in the US, instead of just selling them overseas. Get enough 240V appliances available and people will start to decide that their new home doesn’t need 120V outlets at all, just a few converters for old style appliances.
We would need either completely different building practices, or new and better insulation.
A standard 2x6 wall can take 5-1/2 inches of fiberglass insulation. R-19. You can’t just stuff more insulation in there (compressing it) and get better insulating performance. In fact, it becomes worse.
Of course. But I hope you “do” know that in almost every house built these minor decisions are almost always decided by minimum requirements. The main contractor’s instructions to subcontractors will be “All work must be up to code”
Huh? Are you upset that your old German hair dryer doesn’t work in the States or something? I’ve never, ever, heard anybody complain that 120 volt electricity is somehow inadequate. You need the high-voltage line for heavy-duty stuff like the stove and the furnace, but pumping 240 volts into a light bulb seems a bit excessive.
Me, I’d ban all construction on barrier islands. Every time a hurricane comes ashore, those islands get swept clean, and the taxpayers have to foot the bill to reuild those houses. (Yes, they have insurance, but that insurance is offered by a government-chartered company, and is heavily subsidized because any normal insurance company would go bankrupt trying to cover those people.)
All of Europe, and most of the rest of the world uses 240, there’s no problem with their lightbulbs.
Higher voltages carry more power with less current, reducing the chance of an electrical fire. It allows more load to be carried on the same wiring, or thinner, cheaper, wires for the same load.
A 15 amp circuit, which can now carry 15 100W light bulbs, would support 30 100W bulbs on the same circuit breaker. A heater which is today limited to 1600 watts of power can be ramped up to 3000+. I ran into that problem myself, I wanted to put a space heater in, and found out I couldn’t put the 1600 watt unit where I wanted because the 15 amp circuit it would be on had other things to run as well.
If you were designing the system today, there’s no way you’d use the system we have. You would have a higher voltage and better plug-socket technology. The only reason we don’t change is the install base is too big.
I don’t know if this has to do with codes or just convention, but I’ve never understood why electrical outlets are down near the floor. They’re well within the reach of babies and toddlers, and how much of what you plug in is actually on the floor anyway? I’d rather put them at chair rail height (36"?) - out of toddler reach, more convenient for seniors, people with bad backs and the wheelchair bound and up where most of the stuff is anyway.
Please include three phase service to residential areas in your “eliminate third world power standards from the US” campaign. Three phase motors cost about half, and are far more reliable than single phase motors.
a 120/208 standard would accommodate all the existing 120V appliances.
Oh, yeah, HV light bulbs are less reliable and shorter lived as compared to lower voltage bulbs. The longer, thinner filament is delicate, and more prone to developing hot spots, and with more surface area for the same mass, it sublimates faster.
Nuts. Ok, you can keep overhead lighting on 120V if you must, and my 4 prong plug will let you get 120v out of the outlet, just configure the plug to span the hot and neutral legs instead of hot-hot.
I would require office buildings to make staircases more of a feature rather than hiding them in a corner. I like taking the stairs but in most modern buildings, it’s impossible to find them and when you do, they’re always nasty and dirty. Require them to be prominently featured and maybe more people would take them rather than waiting for the elevators.
Guess I’m not Joe Average with an electric can opener, retired boxer griddle, quesadilla maker, espresso machine, smoothie blender, napkin warmers and 15 other things to plug in.
It just seems silly that a 12" wide sliver of countertop between the stove and fridge needs its own dedicated 20 amp line. I can see where someone might want to put an appliance there, and the dangerous alternative is to run the cord across the stove, but it can’t share the 20 amp circuit with the receptacle on a similarly-sized bit of counter between the other side of the stove and a wall?
Wouldn’t surprise me at all if IBEW got involved with this and got the county to load up so many circuit requirements as to make it all but impossible for an avid DIY-er to do the electric.
I have no objection to a bit of “build for the future” but it needs to be a bit reasonable.
One item I *would * like to see upgraded in codes is flooring. Our home is built with (IIRC) 5/8" T&G chipboard on joists @16" and carpet on top. It’s a bit wiggly in spots. I don’t know that it’s dangerous, but the inch-plus (think it’s 1 1/8") MDF flooring that I use to make workbench tops would make for a much more stable floor as the material itself is almost impossible to bend on its 4-foot width, let alone joists at 16" It’s also a lot better at water resistance as the wood grains are so well impregnated with resin vs the broad uncoated surfaces of the chunks in chipboard. Get chipboard wet, and it’ll go all warty in moments. The MDF is essentially waterproof.
It’s just a matter of what’s the minimum requirement vs what’s better.
We live in a mobile home that was built about 1960–we moved in in 1987. We have a toaster oven and a microwave oven in the kitchen and we’ve had to learn NOT to operate both at once, because together they use so much current that they trip the 1960 circuit breaker, which shuts off one-third of the circuits in the place–front room, half the kitchen, and so on!
There is another aspect of building codes: items that are required and those that are prohibited.
In Ready for the Plaintiff!, Melvin Belli cites one of these. According to the building codes in Miami, Florida, buildings faced with Carrara glass attached to concrete must have the glass stuck to the concrete with mastic for at least 50% of its inside surface, and wooden shims are prohibited. On one such building a larg slab of the glass came loose and struck a passerby, injuring him. The injured person hired a lawyrer, who did some investigation. The inside of the slab of Carrara glass bore the marking “Handle with Care” (ironic, huh?), showing clearly that the Code had been violated: the builders had indeed used wooden shims made from cheap crating material. The salt air and water vapor from the nearby Atlantic Ocean–the building was a hundred feet from the shore–softened the wood shims, weakening the bond beween the concrete, the mastic and the glass, thus causing the glass to come loose from the wall and fall to the ground by its own weight, injuring the plaintiff.
