The story was quite horrific. I knew of the man, by name and sight. He was a solicitor and had something to do with the school. I learned later that he had had a stroke and collapsed, just after turning on the hot water tap as he was about to get into the shower. The burns were horrific and he died a short-time later. Such a story remains powerfully in the memory.
So even with this horror event in my mind, let me relate a classic story of Nanny State’s left hand not knowing what its right hand is doing on water temperature.
I have never come across a similar scalding event. A few children get scalded each year, but no-one dies of it. Nevertheless, a hot-water standard is slowly being imposed upon all of us. I learned of this when doing the socially and environmentally responsible thing by installing a solar hot-water system – and, incidentally taking advantage of the ACT and Federal Government’s socially and environmentally responsible $1500 subsidy — all in the cause of reducing greenhouse gases by using the sun instead of fossil fuels to heat the water.
It should have been easy. Ring several solar hot-water people. Get quotes. Get best deal. Organise installation. I wanted the system on a small piece of north-facing roof at the back, to avoid any ugliness in the front streetscape — along the lines of all the ministerial high-sounding statements about design and siting. The roofspace was slightly too small and would require a couple of supporting struts. That would require building control approval and an engineering report which would cost a total of about $700 and cause about a week’s delay. The building approval is calculated as a percentage of the cost of “construction”. (Lesson: don’t do anything hi-tech in Australia; much easier to bung in something cheap and nasty.)
There is an exemption from building control if the whole of the panels and tank lie flat on the roof. So it went on the front where the north-facing roof is bigger. At least my environmental credentials are now being advertised to the street. Too bad for the aesthetics.
Then came the real folly. The plumber said I would need a temperature regulator. This would cost about $200 to buy and fit. Under plumbing standards introduced under an Australia-New Zealand agreement of 1997, the maximum permissible hot-water temperature in bathrooms and bathing areas is 50 degrees. Licensed plumbers are not permitted to fit new hot-water systems even into existing dwellings unless they comply. Moreover, it is not just a question of a thermostat, like the ones at the base of an electric hot-water system, which any clux can turn up again once the plumber has left. Oh No. Nanny State has decreed that the temperature regulator must be hard-wired. We know what water temperature is best for you. Cold water will be mixed with the solar-heated hot water to reduce it to 50 degrees.
Now I might cop a 50-degree limit in the bathroom (as the mug shot on my Saturday column reveals – I don’t need hotter water for shaving), but in the kitchen it is simply not hot enough. It is probably a health hazard if you want to clean chopping boards after cutting meat before cutting vegetables. It is not hot enough to dissolve margarine or fat when washing the odd plate that does not fit in the dishwasher. Nanny State’s right arm (the food and hygiene authorities) take note of this appalling lapse.
Also, why get the sun to heat water only to add cold water before it goes into the dishwasher or washing-machine both of which have electric elements that heat the water back to 60 or 70 degrees?
Could the plumber please leave out this unwanted protection from myself? I am grown up enough not to leave my hand under a hot tap. Households with lots of small children might be grateful for the temperature regulator. But surely we should be able to choose. No; it was more than the plumber’s licence was worth.
Well, if this madness is compulsory, could we at least save on the electric booster on the solar system and set the thermostat on it to 50 degrees? No; Australian standards require hot water systems to heat the water to 60 degrees for storage to prevent bacteria from growing in the fully treated, chlorinated, fluoridated, ozoned, bacteria-zapped, fully enclosed water tank.
The upshot is that Nanny State’s regulations require us to heat the water in the tank to 60 degrees (sometimes by the fossil-fuel burning electric booster), so it can be cooled to 50 degrees to go into the dishwasher where it will be heated back up to 60 degrees by electricity.
It is self-defeating madness. Well, it may be against the rules for the plumber, but I’m going to climb into my roof and by-pass that silly temperature reducer. Or would that get me into, er, hot water.