Ewww - Don't want to drink softened/conditioned water though. Won't hurt you but not pleasant either. Maybe your house is the same as mine and probably just the hot is conditioned for cleaning.
British vs American Homes
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Ewww - Don't want to drink softened/conditioned water though. Won't hurt you but not pleasant either. Maybe your house is the same as mine and probably just the hot is conditioned for cleaning.
NJW
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"General Computer Chit-Chat"?
nlinecomputers
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The water in my part of Texas is very very hard. I really don't consider it drinkable or safe. You have to use bottled water or have a water softener system out here. Some houses only soften part of the water line so water going to washing machines and the water heater is untreated. But if you do that you will be killing those devices in 5 years or so. The alkaline deposits will destroy everything.
Altster
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I am.
Altster
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Yep, his cat likes to make messes all over the house, too!
Altster
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Mick
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I think the difference is that here, we expect it to be cold (ish) and wet, which, most of the time, it is. So our houses, cars, clothes etc are all designed with that in mind. Basically, they try to keep us warm and dry. We're not equipped to deal with hot weather very well, simply because we get so little of it. For example, I do not know anyone - at all, rich or poor - who has air-conditioning in their home. Luckily, due to an accident of geography, we get very little in the way of climatic extremes of either type.
Sky-Knight
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Here in AZ, specifically the Phoenix Area the water is extremely hard as well. I use a distiller to get my drinking water because the tap water here has uranium in it, and other far less savory things. (Which is why I giggle a bit at all the whining about Flint, MI but that's another topic) But the real problem is despite the fact that our water is very hard, it's also very high in calcium. For those of us with male body parts, that means kidney stones later in life... that's a joy I'd rather avoid, so I distill the water I drink.
Then there's the Summer heat... it was 42C (108F) yesterday, you aren't surviving here without A/C. Only 13% relative humidity though, so there isn't a heat index to worry about, just raw heat.
I do wish we used a 240v infrastructure though, it is simply more efficient. Instead homes here have two 120v mains delivered that are 180 degrees out of phase. So if you want 240v, you have to use one as your hot, and the other as your neutral. The part that makes my head hurts are the commercial sites I work with that have 3 phase power, three 120v legs that are 120 degrees out of phase, use two of those hots and you end up with 208v. Thank Heaven most of our 240v gear also works wit 208v...
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I have air-con at home
.... Albeit not permanent, installed aircon units but portable aircon units (big heavy things that combine both the evaporator and condenser into one unit).
Sky-Knight
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I have air-con at home
I have a 5-ton package unit on my roof that cools my house, one box... got it all in there.
Sky-Knight
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Central AC (coupled to the furnace/plenum) or a window unit used to be the only choices. Now mini-splits are really getting popular -
You're going to start seeing them more and more, in about 10 years the EPA requirements for efficiency if they stick to current trends will be such that any home like mine with bus style ducting will not be able to use the units. You'll need a supply, and a return in every room to make it work.
So you either install multiple mini-splits with a central control system, or you remodel. And the prices on the mini-splits don't justify a remodel. So my next A/C replacement won't be $6000, it'll be more like $12,000... but when the dust settles my home will be cooled by 3 machines instead of 1, so if I have trouble with one the entire house isn't hot.
Markverhyden
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Tanks like that are common in other parts of the world. When we lived in São Paulo back in the 60's/70's everyone had "caixas" (water tanks) on their roofs which provided water and were fed by the city. They are even common these days.
Mick
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@Moltuae OK - correction: "I have heard of one person who has air conditioning in their house."I have air-con at home
btw - not sure whereabouts in Lancashire you live but last time I was there, air-con was about the last thing it would have occurred to me to get!Yeah, admittedly they don't get a lot of use up here in Sunny Lancs, probably just a few weeks most years. They're relatively portable units (~50KG but on wheels) so they're stored away the rest of the year.
Great to have them when we do get some hot weather though, like the present heatwave we're having. I hate being too warm and I can't work or sleep at temperatures much above about 23 degrees C.
Great to have them when we do get some hot weather though, like the present heatwave we're having. I hate being too warm and I can't work or sleep at temperatures much above about 23 degrees C.
coffee
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Interesting that just your hot water is conditioned. If you have hard water then all your water is hard. This is bad on the pipes all thru the house. Atleast that is my thinking. I also got into this with my neighbor. She said that you only put the water conditioner on the hot side. I disagreed. So, I looked it up on plumbing sites and they actually recommend that it is installed on the incoming water pipe before the heater. I guess there are some that prefer it only on the hot side. However, I installed mine for full water conditioning on hot and cold.
As for the taste, I think its just what you are used too. I find soft water much more enjoyable than hard water. Also, Ice cubes are crystal clear and in general overall the water is not as hard on sinks / tubs ect..
Mick
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Funny, really. We spend about eleven months of the year moaning that it's cold or wet, or both, but a couple of weeks of heat makes us pray for rain. Anyway - you have to remember, I'm a southern softie. As I get older, I find the cold weather increasingly hard to cope with. Hope you're nowhere near those fires I keep seeing on the news - that looks bad!
I'm fairly close but not close enough to be directly affected by them. You can see the fire on Winter Hill from here (if you're up high enough) but it's nearly 10 miles away.
fencepost
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This may depend on how good or bad your water is. If it's fine taste-wise then you may only condition the hot side in part to reduce wear and tear on the water heater; if your water has so much mineral content you can evaporate it to make bricks then you'll probably want to condition all of it. Growing up I was in a town that used well water and we definitely softened part of it but I don't remember if it was all or just hot. Now I'm on Lake Michigan water and no softening is needed.
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