Airconditioning is very rarely required in the UK because it very rarely gets hot enough to need it. We have central heating which is what is needed for most of the time. In the summer we might get hot weather for a few days a couple of times during the summer months. Most of the time in the summer the temperature is in the low to mid twenties which is nice. Neither cold nor hot. Just OK. So spending money installing airconditioning which we may use for a week or maximum 10 days is a waste of money. We use fans which are very adequate for the kind of temperatures that we get here.
WE don't do that in Canada either! But I do remember it when I grew up in Wales. I sort of remember mum saying that she did it so we didnt use too much hot water. I never remember mum saying that it was to reduce breakage or noise!
@@Justabitnosey As a matter of interest, do you have a dishwasher? We only wash our pots and pans in the sink, they don't chip or break. We only rinse crockery in the sink. Maybe that's the difference?
A friend of my son went to live in America and married an American when it came to having a house built he insisted on having a brick biult house and all his neighbours said it was a waste of money but he had the last laugh when where he was living had a hurricane and all the wooden houses suffered severe damage and his wasnt hardly affected!
Good point well made. To this day I still don't understand why Americans living in Tornado Alley still make houses out of wood. Surely they know what is coming sooner or later?!?!
Since bricks/stones are kind of lousy insulators compared to wood, I don't believe that, I think it's more a question of fireproofing and the lack of enough wood
@@matshjalmarsson3008 There is an inside wall usually made of breeze block and an outside wall of normal bricks. The insulation goes between the brick layers.
@@no-oneinparticular7264 There is a reason for most houses in the north of Sweden being made of wood, and for the few ones in the south that are made of bricks having much, much thicker walls
In the UK it's ILLEGAL to have a standard power socket in the bathroom, hence no washing machines / drier's in the bathroom. Also in the UK the bathroom light switch is either a pull cord (from the ceiling) or it is outside the bathroom. In newer houses there is often a shaver socket, this is used either for shavers or electric toothbrushes, NOT hairdryer's or any other electrical appliance, as they have to be used in either the bedroom or similar. A ring main is a very safe way of using electric as there is a box usually high up on a wall in the entrance hall that has large fuses for each ring of sockets, there is usually a dedicated ring for each of the following: the lighting circuit, upstairs rooms, downstairs rooms and another for the kitchen. The cooker has one all to itself, every plugin appliance has a fuse in it as well. The reason for all this safety is due to our homes being often terrace homes, semi detached, apartments, and generally a lot closer to each other with high density towns and cities. Please bear in mind that technically you can drive from the southern most town to the northern most town (in Scotland) on the mainland UK in under 24 hours without breaking any speed limits! Our country is very small and would fit into Texas USA, but we have quite a lot of people (68 million) hence our homes are a lot smaller in comparison to those in the USA. Hope this helps!!
Most reactors seem to pause vids every 30 seconds to ask questions which are answered 20 seconds later. My teens say its something to do with copyright - they can't can't let it play too long incase it ends up as just them watching it.
@@dyread He has the memory of a goldfish. _"The... Cotswolds? I've heard of that. Is it a village?"_ He's reacted to multiple vids about the villages in the Cotswolds, but it doesn't register.
Plastic bowls in kitchen sinks - it's called a washing up bowl, and is bought separately. It's handy for emptying out dregs of pans, mugs, bowls, glasses, etc down the drain and keeping the water clean. It's handy as we don't have garbage disposal integrated into the sink. We scape food in compost bins.
@@joancline4844I’m surprised by that! I save the washing up water in the summer to water the garden! Water is precious and we should be aware that one day it could be in very short supply! - and if it doesn’t become so, your water bill will be lower! Win, win, I’d say!
For me it's handy because I have long legs, short arms and a bad back. I turn the bowl sideways so that the lip sits on the edge and lifts the bottom up a couple of inches. That way I don't have to constantly bend to reach things on the bottom. It does mean that I have to pull my sleeves up further though 😉
Our cold water is treated and drinkable straight from the tap. Hot water is not drinkable, hence not a plethora of mixer taps. Some people do have them. Bowl in the sink stops it being scratched by cutlery. Bag of plastic bags is for reusing for shopping, picking up after dog. All sorts of uses.
Not exactly, almost all houses have safe hot water now. Long story short way back when the hot water system was fed by a tank in the loft that usualyl wasn't sealed at all so there was the possibility that something could end up in there and die. For any house with that setup it was illegal to use mixer taps because if that happened and if there was a pressure loss on the main water line contaminated water could backflow through the mixer tap and contaminate the whole system. So seperate taps. And the idea that hot water wasn't safe ended up spreading and it just sort of stuck around long after most people had upgraded hot water systems.
This is only true for old houses that have not had their heating updated in multiple decades. Only if you have a vented (open) tank in the loft which gravity feeds your hot water is the hot water not potable. Almost all houses nowadays have potable hot water.
Yeah but Americans don’t scratch their sinks washing up because they end yet another energy guzzling machine to do it for them. What price a planet that’s possible to live on?
I listed 12 reasons why a plastic washing up bowl is a good idea. (Listed them under another comment but better not repeat them here as TH-cam would likely regard it as spamming.)
Why kettles are better than microwaves, is that the BOIL the water to 100 degrees C. That is how we make real tea. In the microwave it would spill out of the cup. Plus it is faster to boil water in a kettle than on the stove. BTW whistling kettles are not called TEA POTS.
I live in Johannesburg which is at a fairly high elevation. The higher you are above sea-level the lower the boiling point of water so we cannot boil water to 100C. We can still make a decent cuppa though.
@@solaccursiothey would have to be hard wired. Unless you have a mahoosive bathroom so you can have plugs (they are allowed only if they are more than 3m away from the bath or shower tray
@ConnieWobbles One of the worst things I ever saw was an American get an electric kettle to try making tea in. IN!! She put the teabag IN the kettle and then switched it on to boil 😱 Needless to say, she didn't like the tea it produced
@@tanja9364 That used to be me but someone showed me how to fold them up really small and wrap the handles round the rectangle to stop it unfolding. Only thing is they never see the light of day again.
@@janemckay2325 I've found a use for mine - in fact I actually ran out at the beginning of this year - I put the ashes (not hot obviously) in one from my woodburner! Found that Ocado still deliver in plastic bags so I have a stock again!
2nd September to 6th September 1666 was a very significant learning point regarding the positive aspects of building brick houses. See London: Great Fire of!
I'm in Norway. Many houses have AC here...but it's used the other way around. To warm up the house in the winter..."varmepumpe". But you can also use it to cool down the house in the summer. Not that it is very much needed...
I'm Scottish :) i wouldnae be without a plastic sink basin in my metal sink. the bags thing is we reuse carrier bags at the shops so we have a plastic carrier bag then fill it with the other scrunched up carrier bags and keep it in a cupboard.
0:50 As soon as that 5% figure came up, I wondered - 'is it that many?' ... aircon is very rare, despite heatwave temperatures getting into the 30s (and even reached 40c a couple of years ago where I live, basically unbearable). British houses aren't really built to be able to fit aircon, there's no ducting, or space, and the power needed to run them is eye wateringly expensive. 5:10 'Fuses in power outlets' ... that's usually not the case. The fuses are in the plugs, not the outlets. However, if you have a power strip, there will often be a fuse. 6:20 'Lean to' porch - the first image is typical. It is usually just enough to cover the doorway. It's purpose is to give you a space where you can close up an umbrella without having to drip water into the house 7:20 Cupboard under the stairs - yes this is very normal. We don't have much space so we try to use it as efficiently as possible. 9:00 Our house electrics are stronger, so kettles are faster here (3kW kettles versus 1.5kW). Whereas in USA houses, using the hob is faster because it can draw more power. 11:30 Higher humidity for sure, hence more mould. 12:50 A ring main means that you can have a broken wire and everything will still work. But it makes electrical testing harder so electricians often don't like it. 14:00 Plastic bowl (inside the metal sink) is primarily to reduce the amount of hot water used. Power is expensive here. 15:00 Shopping bags. Shops have to charge for new bags, in order to reduce plastic waste. 18:00 Not enough space to have a room dedicated to just laundry. Basements are not common, but some older houses have them. 21:00 Yeah Harry Potter's house was very normal, almost a stereotype
Agree, there is NO WAY that 5% of British homes have air con. I've lived all over the UK, been in hundreds and hundreds of homes and NO ONE has it. Never even heard of anyone having it… and I've spent the last 20 years living in the hottest part of the UK!
There'll be a fuse box for all circuits in the house. In ours, the light circuits are front and back, while the sockets are downstairs and upstairs! One fuse blew about 16 years ago. I then had to try and find a specialist electrical store which sold the fuses a few days before Christmas.
Any Brit with common sense would keep a supply of different strength fuses in a kitchen drawer or in their toolbox. I hope you bought the correct amperage fuse for the appliance to which the plug was attached. Normally a 3amp fuse for something like a table lamp, a 5amp for perhaps a computer but a kettle or electric iron would need a 13amp fuse.
The sockets are also fused, so that if you electrocute yourself by sticking something into the socket that fuse will blow, faster than the circuit breaker trips.
My house is made from solid blocks of sandstone, the walls are 18 inches thick. So it stays cool in the summer and warm in winter as its so well insulated..
Sandstone has high thermal conductivity, so you don’t have good insulation. What you have is a lot of thermal mass, which will make the temperature very stable between the day and night. It will stay cool in the summer provided the nights are still cold, but a long run of hot nights for multiple days will eventually bring the temperature up. A sandstone house will not stay warm in the winter without significant heating.
Besides the reason the UK has largely deforested the vast majority of UK houses are made from red brick or stone because of their heat insulating properties. We build double brick walls and have cavities for insulation. The whole idea in construction of a house in the UK is how to keep in as much warmth as possible rather than let heat out. This is why not many houses have A/C, you simply don't need something like that the vast majority of the year this far north. The colder climate is also why many people have an enclosed porch so you have two doors to go through before you actually get into the house and why there's a hallway as a separate room rather than open plan living. You're adding more barriers between the cold winter weather outside and yourself inside. It is a very long, cold and dark winter here in the UK. On the shortest day, known as winter solstice, sunset is before 4 pm. The actual daylight time is less than 9 hours and this time will almost certainly be gray and overcast. So we need much more sturdy houses that can withstand the harsh winters and keep in the warmth in the cold, wet and snowy conditions we get here.
i have both hot and cold taps in my bathroom . simply put the plug in the sink drain then run the cold and hot together till you get temperature of water you want and turn them back off.
There are still a lot of older buildings in the U.S. that have separate taps in the bathrooms and/or kitchens. My first two apartments had them, and I did what you do, as most other Americans would. It is not beyond us, and it is indeed not rocket science. Good grief.
In regard to basements or cellars in UK houses, about 95 percent of those built 1700 to 1900 have them, roughly 65 percent of those built 1900-1965, but under 20 percent of those built more recently. Another thing often seen in UK houses, but very rarely in the US is an airing cupboard.
@Jill-mh2wn The statistic is probably wrong, but a lot of houses prior to 1851 had basements, and a lot less after had basements. The reasoning is simple, prior to 1851 housing tax was determined by looking from the outside to estimate rooms and floor space; having a basement meant you had space you didn't need to pay tax on. After 1851 this was changed so it became based on the number of rooms(regardless of windows), so having a basement was less appealing that extra above ground space. All of that is different now too, since it's based on estimated house price if it was to be sold in 1991, so basements are fairly adjusted for now which they weren't previously.
It all depends where the houses are built, what the geology is, and what the shape of the ground surface is - houses built on slopes might have something cellar-like
@@Jill-mh2wn Many, many, many older houses in Brighton and Hove have basements. More often than not, the buildings have been divided up and the basement is now a separate dwelling unit.
The ring circuit was introduced to the UK and many colonies after WW2 when copper was very expensive and Britain had little money. The ring circuit uses far less cable than the spur system where separate cables run from the distribution box to just one or two sockets.
London is in the south east and tends to be hotter than the north of the UK. Here in Manchester it is currently 13C/55F and raining. It getting above 70F is classed as a heatwave these days lol. Newer houses or those which have had new water systems installed have mixer taps but not always in both the kitchen and bathroom. In mine we have mixer taps in the bath and the kitchen but the sink in the bathroom has 2 seperate taps. Larger, older houses (Victorian and earlier) often have what we call cellars. Smaller and more modern homes generally don't. Some take sheds to another level and they are often referred to as 'Man caves' or garden rooms and some may have bars, TV's, pool tables etc in them or hobby equipement.
In our house, the cupboard under the stairs housed the vacuum cleaner and it's accessories also other cleaning products for wood flooring, carpet etc, a box with Brasso metal polish, shoe cleaning stuff, and a lovely sealed container with all the Christmas decorations. I still use a plastic bowl in the kitchen sink (not used to reduce noise), we used it as a way of saving water, because of the droughts during the 1970s, 80s. It enables you to use less water that is still deep enough to cover the dishes.
Kitchen sink bowls. Protects the sinks, whether metal or porcelain, you can empty your waste tea down between bowl and sink. Less items are broken, when washing up. . You use less water to wash up. You can buy a coloured bowl to match your decor. Washing machine is usually in the kitchen or utility room, near the rear door, handy for access to washing line in the garden. It would be really inconvenient to have to carry a heavy load of washing down from an upstairs bathroom, through the house to reach a rear door.
Their bathrooms are big enough so they usually have a drier, often stacked on top of the washer - many US people don't even know what a washing line is!
Nah. If you fill the sink with water, in theory it's only slightly more than in a washing up bowl. It's not so significant a difference that the bowl is essential. Rinsing will use the same amount of water. I never understood this argument.
@@joyelmes7814 why on earth wouldn't you rinse the soap off your dishes? Madness. Madness, I say. I am not one for eating soap. Or drinking it. And I CAN taste washing-up liquid in an unrinsed cup.🤢 ETA: one can just not fill up the sink quite as much if it's larger. I have strong doubts that larger sinks are a widespread issue, or that they are such for washing up!
A ring circuit has 2 advantages. 1 it can carry a much greater current load so more devices on 1 circuit. 2 it’s a fail safe if there is a break in the wiring the the electricity flows through the cable both directions. So only the socket with the broken wire is affected all other sockets on the ring would remain operational.
LOL Americans don't seem to appreciate that the UK is WAY further north than America. The middle of the UK is the same latitude as the top of Ontario, Canada - up where all the snow is.
A plastic bowl is really useful if you have a single sink. It keeps the washing up water hotter for longer. It is less noisy than metal sinks. It takes the wear a tear and scratches that build up in continual use. Dirty water or rinse water can be tipped direct into sink and not into bowl. The entire bowl of wash water can be removed to use the sink without throwing the wash water away. It can be used as a drip tray for hand washed clothes to the drier or outside line. They come in range of attractive colours. They use less water than whole sink would. When old they can be used as a tidy for cleaning products or garden use.
I thought of 12 reasons of my own. The ones you didn't list here are… I've actually thought of TWELVE reasons just now why I think the washing up bowl is important… *1. Hygiene* The large metal sink always seems to be grimey and takes a lot longer to clean properly, so it's used more for when you're cleaning big, dirty things such as over racks. Whereas the plastic bowl is REALLY clean and hygienic and takes absolutely NO TIME to wipe round. *2. Instant drainage* If you're washing up and want to quickly change the water, you can INSTANTLY pour out the water and start refiling. Without it, you'd have to pull the plug and wait for the water to drain before you can refill. *3. Aesthetically pleasing* Washing up in a metallic sink has a kind of harsh, gloomy industrial feeling, like you're a kitchen worker. But putting your hands into that soft, nice coloured bowl really lifts one's spirits and is generally a friendlier experience. You wouldn't want to lie in a METAL bath tub, would you? The bowl is like a bathtub for your hands. *4. Focal point* When you walk into a British kitchen, the central focal point is really the plastic bowl. It acts like a guide to say: "This is where your hands will go, this is where you're going to be standing, this in the central focus point of the kitchen." Without the bowl, the kitchen seems kind of soulless and un-human. *5. Reach* Most sinks are quite deep and you don't want to have to reach all the way down to the very bottom. The plastic bowl lifts the items up, bringing everything closer to you. *6. It matches the rack* It's standard practice for Brits to coordinate the colour of our plastic washing up bowl with the colour of our plastic washing up drying rack. In fact, we often buy the two together as a matching set. *7. Plug hole avoidance* For me, this is the most important one… I find the plug hole absolutely DISGUSTING! No matter how clean you keep the plug hole, I do not EVER want to put things I eat off into a sink where they might not only TOUCH the plug hole, but if you wanted to drain the water, things like cutlery could very easily end up getting LODGED in the plug hole!
I have just emptied my plastic bowl from my washing up in to plant pots outside, therefore recycling the water to a degree and not just chucking it away. The detergent used in washing up does not harm the plants, the water has had two uses. Better than throwing nice clean water on the floor through a hose. What we see on the news here, when an area of the US has had a tornado. We see these wooden houses completely destroyed, apart from one thing, the brick built fire place and chimney. I know it's the argument of black boxes in aircraft, "why don't they build the planes out of black boxes". But really, It would be interesting to see how well they would hold up if they built them more like proper houses rather than garden sheds!
Have you really looked at footage of tornado damage? Tornadoes don't care what the structure is made of - they will demolish a brick building just as easily as a timber one. Some, like the Jarrell, Texas tornado even peeled up the pavement out of the ground. There were brick schools and hospitals in Joplin, Missouri that were badly damaged or destroyed. There are numerous videos on TH-cam which show just how destructive tornadoes can be. And for the most part timber structures are well-built, and they do have more 'give' than brick or stone structures when it comes to earthquakes. I do love the looks of brick buildings. St. Louis is actually known for its old brick buildings. There are some lovely old neighborhoods with brick homes. Some of these areas were unfortunately hit by tornadoes and badly damaged, and recovery took years.
@@CherylVogler I know they wouldn't be completely untouched, just better braced against such things. If you are hit directly then I feel pretty much nothing would stand in its way. I watch a lot of US procedural crime dramas. Such as SVU. They refer to old red brick houses in the more up market side of towns. I've seen some of Boston too. The US is a massive country full of timber so I can understand the reasoning behind the wood usage.
@@janneroz-photographyonabudgetYou did pretty much hit the nail on the head about the abundance of wood here. That is certainly a big factor in it's use for building materials. Definitely a tornado that is between an F0 and an F2 won't do as much damage to a brick structure, but as you said a direct hit from anything, especially a more powerful one will do a lot of damage. And as one comedian who's name I forget said, It's not the wind, but what's in the wind. 😮 Thanks for your response! 😊
Our kettles boil faster than one would in the USA due to 240v electricity supply in UK compared to 110v in US. But you know this already. I've seen you do a video on it. Also Tea making is only one use of a kettle. Boiling water is used for coffee, pot noodles making jelly, custard, gravy, speeding up saucepan water for vegetables, pasta, rice, boiling eggs. filling hot water bottles, killing weeds, making Oxo, Bovril Marmite drinks. etc, etc. The list is endless. I boil a kettle five to six times a day. And only boil the amount of water I need so it's more efficient.
Mains voltage makes no difference. It is the power rating of the electric kettle that determines how fast water can boil. In the UK, most are rated at 3,000 watts or so. Those available in the USA seem to be half this, or even less. I can only assume that domestic electrical installations in the USA are not designed for appliances that draw that much power from a standard power point. They would be fine if run off the separate circuit that supplies the oven and hob.
My Dutch house has a cupboard under the stairs that duals as a stairs into my cellar. My garden used to have two sheds, but now it only has the one, because my name isn't Arthur Jackson, lol. Our grounded plugs only have two plugs for the currant to flow, so they are more versatile. Grounding happens through plating on the sides. You can turn them upside down if it's more convenient. We Dutch also like our kettles. They used to be little metal containers you'd put on the gas stove to boil water in. Even had an nice loud whistle in the cap so you'd know when it'd be ready. Hence the name flute kettle. Electric's faster and cheaper I guess, but I do miss that whistle sometimes. Dish bowl, check! Bag of bags, check! Mix taps, lucky me. Washing machine's in the kitchen, because the kitchen opens up to the garden where you hang your clothes to dry, if it isn't raining. No dryers here. A chancel is the elevated place ministers preach from. Front door letterbox, check! This was fun.
The electric kettle is the last thing we pack when you move house, so it's the first thing we can find when we arrive at the new home. Our houses have more mould largely because of the weather, brick built houses last longer and the damp proof course deteriates and has to be replaced, it's expensive so is not always replaced when needed, hence mould.
Where I am in the north of England, on the 30th of June at just gone mid-day it's 58 Fahrenheit or 14 Celsius and it's raining. There's no need for air conditioning the vast majority of the time, it's more insulation that houses need, especially up here in the north where it's often significantly cooler than in the south of England. We've literally just had a four day heatwave where the maximum has been around 80F/27C but now it's gone a lot colder. It is predicted to stay around the 60F range as a daily maximum for the next week or so. What you have to remember is that the UK is on a similar latitude to places in the middle of Canada.
Plastic bowls. Valuable. The heat is not sucked out of the water by a metal sink. It also prevents staining of the sink. A bag of plastic bags. When you keep getting new ones, the best way to collect them together in another bag. All in one place instead of all over the place. Two taps. Achieve the temperature you want in the bowl, by adding a little more hot or cold to suit requirement. Saves trying to get the right temperature by jugging the tap.
Separate hot taps in kitchens and bathrooms was because the hot water boiler or immersion cylinder was fed with a tank in the attic or loft. This arrangement gives higher hot water pressure at the taps, but the tank water isn't as clean as cold water direct from the mains. Separate cold supply is considered safe to drink.
It is also illegal to combine mains water with water from the hot water storage tank unless you fit a non-return valve to the mains supply so that any contaminated water from the mixer unit is not syphoned back into the public supply. This law is rarely enforced now as in most houses the hot water comes from sealed tank and not from the old open storage tank in the loft.
The fact that you don'[t have kettles is BIZARRE! I drink coffee all day but every time I see an American film where the coffee pot as been on all day makes me feel ill - it must be really stewed and not very hot. A kettle means we make hot drinks with fresh, boiling water - ta da!
oh dear, you drink instant coffee! get yourself a coffee maker with an insulated jug, ours stays hot for most of the day without needing to heat the jug
The fashion these days is for "open plan living" where the kitchen, dining room and living room are all one room, even if they weren't when the house was built. Personally, I hate that style of living, I like to shut the door on the kitchen! They even seem to be building flats these days where the kitchen is installed along one wall of the living room. Awful.
My Florida residence has a open floor plan . My flat in the UK has a door in every room even the kitchen. And if i want the big light on in the bathroom i have to turn it on from the outside unless i want to use the little light from the mirror. And i love my sash windows in my uk flat . In my Florida home the windows are big but they lack the character and charm of my flat in the uk
19:15 we generally dont have basements because of alot of wet weather causing mold and/or flooding. But you find cellars in very old buildings if you count that.
Same in Canada we have fuses in our power outlets. If a power goes out in one part of the house, just check the fuse box (in my house the fuse box is in a garage) which switch it is and just flick it back on.We have kettles and electric kettles as well.
We do get 30oC days, but being an island we have a very moist atmosphere, our biggest problem is damp, youcan wrap up agai st the cold but damp goes through to the bone.
Our kitchen sinks are mainly metal too, or porcelain. Since we mostly still don't use dishwashers we wash our dishes in plastic bowls in the sink since it's smaller and you don't need too much water and can rinse the soap off into the actual sink so you don't affect the dishwater.
6:05 all of my north American houses have had closets under the stairs. It's just that they weren't accessible from the side (like I imagine UK ones are but might be wrong) but from the end. My current one acts as the network closet (since the stairs are centrally located) and storage for bigger items.
15:34 In the UK, we get these plastic shopping bags. There are thinner ones and bags that are thicker called “A Bag For Life” (The thicker plastic allows the bag to last longer). To store all these bags, we will normally use another bag so we don’t have tones of bags all over the house.
One use for a plastic washing up bowl is that you can fill it up with soapy water and move it somewhere else to clean, it also allows for faster refilling as you can tip it out into the sink and start to refill it as the dirty water is still going down the sink drain, it's also less likely to scratch or chip glasses and dishes and you can't accidentally unplug it while washing
Most houses have mixer taps however older houses had separate taps as the hot taps were supplied by old water boilers and cold water was either direct from the mains or via a cold water tank in the loft space to give you some water pressure. A basement is rare except for expensive houses where the servants would work or Victorian houses and northern houses where the ground was more favourable, usually used to store the coal
15:54 yes. They're purchased entirely separately from the sink, usually at a supermarket or similar, just drop them in and remove at the end of its life or if you move house.
US houses have not always had AC either. It is a fairly new technology. You will not find AC much anywhere before some 50 years ago. If you watch early movies you will see US houses also had separate hot & cold taps, not mixer taps, which are also now more common in the UK. This is to ensure that the cold supply is fit to drink, when mixing hot 7 cold water may lead to bacteriological contamination & therefore illness. The water can be mixed in the sink to reach the required temperature. That's what the sink is there fore. When it is hot in the UK, which is anything above about 25 degrees centigrade, which seems not very warm in most of the US, it becomes really unpleasant, because it's usually high in humidity. Also daylight lasts for many hours during the summer months. Sunrise may be as early as 4 am, & sunset as late as 10 pm, lots of time to heat up on a sunny day, which means the nights are not long enough for things to cool down much. The US has not had microwave ovens for ever either, they are another very recent invention. Kettles are used to heat water for far more than just making tea. This is good to heat water for pasta etc instead of doing it on the stove from cold. Also we use it often for instant coffee, soups etc etc. It is useful also for cleaning stuff & many other things. We put a plastic washing up bowl in the sink to protect both the sink & the plates etc from damage. It has to do with most houses in the UK having been built before electricity supplies & AC, washing machines, or even indoor plumbing etc etc were even invented. So such stuff had to be accommodated in houses as they were. You couldn't just stick extra spaces on to add such stuff. As many houses in the UK are built in long joined terraces, you can't just stick AC units on every one just for the possible need for a few summer days. the cost of fitting & operating these is just not worthwhile. We kept are good timber in the past to build warships, & use fireproof materials for houses, like stone, brick & tiles, after such events as the Great Fire of London in 1666 ad. There is not as 'standard' British house, but a great variety of types, designs & sizes across the country. New houses tend to be more uniform in design, because some building companies are nation wide, & there are minimal requirements that they tend to stick to for the regular sort of new built homes. Semi-detached is normal, where 2 homes are built as one, divided into to a pair in sort of 'mirror' fashion. Single built homes are more rare, because they take up more space & are therefore more expensive. Most people live in houses that are 100+ years old, adapted as much as they may be to modern standards, but retaining many elements of the past.
The UK is at the same latitudes as Alaska & Newfoundland. NYC is on a level with Rome. The contiguous USA is at the same latitudes as the Mediterranean and North Africa. It's no wonder houses in the US need A/C. Americans never seem to understand this...
I have to say, I feel like consumer home kitchen microwaves have been around for a long time, at least to me. Weren't microwaves hitting the consumer market in the 70's? My parents got a Toshiba microwave that had that faux brown wood grain look. I think it was from 1980. They used that microwave for ages. I was using that microwave around the year 2000. It still worked.
@@CherylVogler The vast majority of those I've spoken with don't, only those actually in the UK. They assume everywhere is like the USA.. I've lived & worked in WV & AZ, spent time in NYC, FL & DC. How many times do you see ppl on YT complaining that the UK doesn't generally have A/c?
@@wessexdruid7598Quite a lot. I watch several TH-cam reactors who live in the UK, and they often moan about how hot it is and lament that they don't have air conditioning. I didn't really expect to see much of it when we were in the UK , and neither did our friends when they were there. We knew you didn't get the same type of weather we did here (in the Midwest - I know there are areas in the states where they generally don't need a.c.). It was so cold in Scotland when we were there in August that we had to buy gloves and wool scarves! That was a surprise!
5:40 We don't have fuses in most power outlets, but we do have fuses in our plugs 14:30. This is probably a hang over from when we had mainly porcupine sinks and dropping anything into it would result in the item breaking
lean to entrance porches are standard as it rains a lot here and water will warp the door or door frame over time as the moisture gets in. so having a little bit of cover (even from the heat) can make the door (and door frame) last a lot longer.
Chancel repair liability is a real thing with some properties, but easily dealt with. I was able to purchase insurance against it in perpetuity for about £2.70. It’s a case of “they’re never going to land you with a claim, but you just have to have it so that all the little legal niceties are covered”.
Under the stairs storage space existed in older homes in North America - like homes over 100 years old. But, more recent designs have the basement stairs and upstairs right under each other. The University of Manitoba did an experiment. Straw houses are warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer, whereas brick houses are cooler in the winter and warmer in the summer. There is a movement to build new houses with straw insulation between the walls. Straw houses also have less mold. In the three little pigs, brick represented the least primitive of the three types of societies, and nature (represented by the wolf / howling wind) was presented as an enemy which needed to be conquered. Any American who wishes to purchase a kettle can get one in Canada. A grocery bag full of plastic grocery bags - Tyler, ask your mom. square bowl in sink - build shelves, use to store toys
@@TwogirlsabroadI have yet to buy one because I have a small kitchen with little counter space which is already crowded with other "necessary" items! Maybe I need to get one and just switch it out! 😊
@@CherylVogler I highly recommend it!!! When I bought mine I threw out my regular kettle. If you have an Aldi near you wait and they will have them affordably again. I used them for the first time in the Europe and feel in love with the performance of them.
The classics are: Carpets in the bathrooms, Pipes on the outside of the house (so that they are easier to repair when they break from freezing), Heavy and thick curtains and a fireplace to reduce draft from the leaky sash windows
@@Essemm52 Perhaps, mostly, but I've seen it quite recently. I've seen it here in Sweden too, one of my friends family had it in the 70ies. We thought it was weird, but that family was kind of weird anyways
@@matshjalmarsson3008 I have to confess that I went through a ‘weird’ phase in the eighties! Peach pink carpet; it matched the bathroom suite! Don’t judge me! 🤣
@@Essemm52 I don'tjudge, I'm just observing. In the early 90ies my father installed floor heating in our bathroom, that was our way to make it more comfortable. He also installed a dryer on top of the washing machine and a couple of electrical outlets for shavers/hair dryers (or that was probably earlier). We look down on Britain in many ways, some things just seem backwards, I mean sorry but fuses in the plugs, why? But we love you!
@@matshjalmarsson3008 Thanks for the ❤️ Regarding the fuses in plugs, in the case of a short circuit it protects the user from electric shock by blowing immediately. This also is less likely to cause a fire and also protects the appliance from serious damage. All in all a good thing. It all comes from when we adopted the ring main system to save copper, with each connection then needing its own fuse. This is why we have the larger plug with three pins. I’m no electrician, and probably haven’t explained it very well, but that’s the gist! Modern fused plugs last twenty to thirty years anyway, so most will outlast the life of the appliance!
When I was growing up in Cambridge, Ma. during the ‘50s & ‘60s we didn’t have a dishwasher. We did the dishes by hand from a plastic tub we purchased to fit the sink. The dishes (and pots, pans, and utensils) would be placed in a rack to dry. The sink was white enamel over metal. The plastic tub protected the enamel from chipping. 😺
Why would a washing machine in the kitchen be disgusting? You don't wash your dishes with the laundry. You take the linen bin/laundry basket into the kitchen, (when you're not cooking or washing up), and you put the laundry straight into the washing machine and close the door. The laundry and the food/food preparation arears don't meet up. And what do you think is going to happen if you put your washing machine on while you're preparing food or cooking? You're not going to get dysentery or some incurable highly contagious disease . TBH I can't imagine you doing any more cooking than making a sandwich, or doing the washing. I bet your mum or your wife does it all for you!
17:30 He is probably referring to having single mixing taps that’s all. Old houses may have two taps, every modern house/apartment would have a single and mixer
@@nono86753 fused plugtops are the superior design as each individual appliance has its own fuse, the US and Canadian electrical system is very antiquated by comparison.
Tyler, Many houses in the UK are small, it's a small country. I live in a stone built house , that's well over 100 years old. Yes I have modernised it internally somewhat, electricals , plumbing etc. but still kept the character. We don't have the weather to warrant AC, heat is more important. I have been to the States, it's a massive country, you have huge houses, lots of room we don't have. However, really the US is backward in a lot of things, which I found very interesting. Loved my time there, even though it was in the middle of a hurricane.
We don't have smaller houses in the UK because it's a small country. That's ridiculous. You can have as much land & as big a house as you want, if you can afford it. There are some enormous houses in Britain, & some with thousands of acres of private gardens etc. It's just the standard houses for most people are built to the minimum permitted size for living space, so that developers can squeeze more houses on each piece of land & get more money, while the local council gets tax for each household annually, so it's to their benefit also to maximise the number that can be fitted in. If the Government increased the space requirements for each household then houses could be larger, with space for laundry rooms, built closets, more bathrooms etc. but the developer lobby is too powerful so this doesn't happen as profit matters more than people.
I think the washing-up bowls were first used in the days of large china "Belfast" style sinks. To conserve precious hot water when only washing dishes. The larger sink would have been used to wash larger pans , and also clothes prior to washing machines. The bowls were originally enameled metal. Prior to modern multi-sink fittings the bowl also allows you to rinse items under the tap without diluting or cooling the bowl washing water.
A teapot and a kettle are two TOTALLY different things! Also the higher voltage transmutes into more power available to boil the water quicker, thus the kettle is more efficient in the UK
In the UK spending loads on air conditioning didn't make sense if you only needed it a few weeks a year, and only every other year or less. It is becoming more popular as the summers are getting consistently hotter. It only becomes unbearable if we have a run of hot days and hot nights. So the house bricks don't cool down overnight.
I installed a couple of air source heat pumps a few years back, they are both reversible for air con in the summer via ceiling ducts, works a treat all year round.
@@lordprotector3367 Solid brick houses take a long time to warm up or cool down. A car is just a thin sheet of metal, one in a dark color left in the sun for a bit gets hot enough to do serious harm.
@@astranger448 My lecky bills are zero and I get a few hundred quid from my supplier in the summer months , the power comes from a 20Kw solar array which runs everything including the heat pumps and the septic tank.
About the airconditioning: it's the same in Finland as in the UK. That's because traditionally the equipment was really expensive, and also the old kinds of airconditioners would only work in one direction, _cooling_ the rooms. So it could be only used a month or so in a year. The rest of the time it would have to be switched off because it would be working against the heating that's keeping the room temperature at the regular 20...25°C (68...77°F) while the outside temperature could be -40°C (-104°F). So, 11 months out of a year it would be doing nothing, which would make it unsure if the device would still work when needed, after the outside unit (usually designed for warmer climate) being exposed for months to the winter weathers. So, it's not necessarily better to have something and not need it, because the long time of not using it might get it seized or something, so it might not work anyway when the few hot days start. And when the hot days would start, there would be a lot of customers needing repairs the same time, and for many the repairs could get only done after the need would be over for the year. So, you would end up paying a lot for nothing. Only in the recent decade or two, when a better version of airconditioners -- known as heat pumps -- appeared, they have started to become more common in new houses. They can be used as part of the heating because they can both heat and cool, whichever is needed, and the models that have been designed for cold climate... well, they can handle the cold climate. Instead, heating naturally has always been considered an essential feature where I live. The heating is quiet because it's meant to be used around the clock and around the year, and the indoor temperature stays the same, be the outise temperature -40°C or +15°C. Though, the harder the heating has to work the drier the air gets. But when I visited the US about a decade ago (San Francisco) and stayed in a motel, the heating was barely existing. At nights it got cold in the room, and the only heating was a loud fan-like thing in the wall that was too loud for sleeping, and a minute after it stopped the room was just as cold again, due complete to lack of insulation (the walls were thin and you could see daylight between the door and doorframe). And I saw in a publication there a story recommending using used household water to water the backyard (apparently there was scarcity on water). It sounded funny to me, because the recommendation was given like it was a universal truth, but where I live, pouring water on a snow bank wouldn't make much sense. I guess the generalization from this is that in different parts of the world there can be scarcity of something while another place has the same thing in abundance, and vice versa. That's why what is essential and needed can vary a lot. About the houses made of bricks vs. wood: In Finland most of the houses are made of wood. But they are not flimsy. I guess it's again because of the climate that the US houses tend to have thinner walls, but the material in itself doesn't necessarily make something inherently weak. The difference between the UK and Finland could be that Finland is rather sparsely populated and has a lot of trees, so in traditionally it would have been natural to use easily-available wood for everything possible.
i dont think kettles work as well in the US, its the lack of electric power 240 v 110 volts, the 'plastic bowl' in the sink is called a basin and washing machines went in the kitchen because when they were invented they had to be plumbed in, meaning the choices were kitchen or bathroom but with limited space in the bathroom and the ability to place a washing machine under the counter in the kitchen made it easier
Except that when most people started having washing machines in their home, they were twin tubs that loaded from the top and people didn’t really have the type of fitted kitchens that are prevalent nowadays, the were a limited amount of fixed units that were proper cabinetry and some that were separate cabinets that were moveable. So washing machines went in the kitchen because they were the only room in the house that were both plumbed for water and had power outlets. I was born in the mid 70’s and I have very vague memories of my Mum using a twin tub and of our kitchen being renovated to a modern fitted kitchen with no moveable kitchen cabinets.
Not all old houses have bathrooms, my old house didn't have a bathroom until we had an extension built on the end of our kitchen for it. Before that we used a galvanised metal bath that we filled by boiling lots of saucepans of water on the stove. As kids we'd have to bathe in front of the living room fire, when we were older, we'd bathe in the kitchen with the door locked. When our new bathroom was built, we had to have a fire burning all year round to heat water for the bath, luckily my father was a coal miner & we had 12 tons of coal delivered every year (on a 1 ton/month basis) as part of his union inspired contract. There was no central heating initially, until we had it installed due to a council grant - that was coal fired again, we didn't have gas until fairly recently.
Our bathrooms tend to be smaller & we rarely have electrics in there. Kitchens are next to back yard/garden where we put washing to dry on sunny days. Less use of stairs
I live in Canada and most homes have kettles, some people do use the microwave. Only time I use a saucepan is if my kettle broke and haven’t bought a new one yet
It's easy to mix water to the correct temperature with two taps. Just put in the sink plug and add water from the two taps to the correct mix to get the desired temperature. How easy do you need it?
Americans on TH-cam reacting with shock at separate hot and cold taps… Meanwhile me in Massachusetts this year for my friend’s 50th and what did the toilets in the venue it was held have…separate hot and cold taps.
Some uk houses have a utility room. In which case the washing machine/drying facilities might more likely be in there than the kitchen. Some uk houses have a below ground room called a cellar. Some cellars would equate to the us basement. A lot of what was called 'a leanto porch' would be enclosed by half & half large windows above wooden panel sides.
All my windows are open about 6 inches, back patio door also open about 6 inches. Never had any mould and my house is 75 years old. It's currently 15C (59F) ☘☘☘☘
Mixing taps have single "spout" with a separate handle to turn on hot and cold water. I worked in office for year that mixer taps in "restrooms" that somehow didn't actually mix the water. When you used them you actually got cold water around the outside of boiling hot water.
Roof shingles in the U.S. can be made from a variety of materials, from asphalt to clay, copper, metal, slate, and wood, and more. The style and pitch of the roof can dictate the material used. Location and weather conditions are factors in shingle choices. An area prone to hailstorms would need a more durable material than a region that rarely gets them.
About the sink bowls (basins). Some older houses have a hot and cold separate faucet they do not mix, they use it to soak dishes. Lol all these things are in older houses on our East coast. I live in NYC my washer and dryer is in my kitchen. I clean my table and it works as an excellent folding table or I take it in a basket to a room. They have cellars not really used as a playroom
OK. Can't believe I'm pointing this out but sinks have a plug, put the f(bleep)ing in then turn on the two taps and whallah mixed water or use the washing-up bowl (plastic) to wash with personally I find mixer taps never give out water that's actually hot only lukewarm where as the two tap systems can give almost ice water and water that's close to boiling
as a brit, we have air con in our house, needed for 2 - 4 weeks of the year when the heat gets unbearable - especially at night, you can use it as a heater also 😀
Using a Plastic Bowls in the sink not only helps in the ways stated in the video, a plastic bowl also: 1. Uses less water (waste less). 2. Keeps the water hotter for longer (better thermal insulation). 3. Means that you can't accidently, 'pull the plug', out of the drain, thereby wasting more water. 4. Means that, in an emergency, e.g. you need to wash chemicals from your eyes, you can very quickly and easily change the use of the Sink, by simply lifting the bowl out and putting it on the side worktop. Most bathroom sinks aren't big enough to get your whole head under the tap. 5. Means that, if a glass is broken, while washing up, you don't have to 'fish' around for the bits of glass, and risking being cut. You simply pour the contents through a sieve and a cloth, or some kitchen roll and the glass is collected safely.
The plastic bowl is there to stop your crockery from chipping. It’s against the law to build a new house and have plugs in the bathroom for fear of electrocution.
I live in Southern England. probably the warmest spot you'll find, just south of London in a place known as 'The Garden of England'. Sometimes we get temperatures that are uncomfortably hot outside in the day, but our houses are mostly built of solid brick that has a very high heat capacity so they tend to keep an even temperature. It's just not a problem indoors. Similarly in winter. It never gets that cold either. So in answer to your question, yes, the UK has generally pleasant weather.
You mix hot and cold water in the sink. I have a mixer tap in my kitchen and it bever gets hot. I have to boil a kettle for hot water. I prefer two taps.
Electrically we are doubly protected because we have a fuse in the plug plus a circuit breaker on the distribution board egich controls half or whole floor. Usually the lighting circuit are on a seperate breaker to the power sockets.
We dont have hurricanes.. I guess originally we had more clay and less woodland. Watttle and daub was the origional.. I never realised your plugs were not separate.. Thank you Tyler.
Leaving aside flats (apartments) and detached houses, you have to consider history to understand housing for working class/middle class people in the UK. The Great Fire of London (1666) spread so quickly due to the wooden buildings, so building regulations were introduced requiring new buildings to be constructed primarily of brick or stone. Land for building is scarce, so houses are quite small. There are still many Victorian "two up, two down" working class houses built before indoor toilets and indoor plumbing (these mostly now have rear extensions for bathroom and toilet). Late Victorian and Edwardian terraced and semi-detached houses (more expensive) for skilled workers and the middle class had a dining/living room, a front parlour and a small kitchen downstairs with two main bedrooms, a box room (third bedroom), and small bathroom/toilet upstairs. The overall size of most modern houses has not changed much in over 100 years (the footprint of a standard 3 bedroom house is around 400 square feet with the largest room around 130 square feet). So, how do we face the challenge of fitting appliances and possessions into a floorspace roughly the same size as before the appliances were invented? We have to cram a dishwasher and washer/dryer under a kitchen worktop and fit cupboards high on the walls. A combined fridge/freezer takes up less floorspace than two separate units. We can knock out internal walls to create open-plan kitchen/dining room/living room areas. Enclosed front porches are built to store coats and shoes. Bunk beds and divan beds with drawers are great space savers. Mounting a shower over the bath takes far less space than installing a separate shower. The area under the stairs may provide as much storage space as a medium-sized wardrobe and chest of drawers. Loft conversions can provide an extra bedroom. A rear extension can provide an extra room (such as a laundry room or living room) and ease the storage problem.
'Fuses in our power outlets' NO - we have fuses in our PLUGs. I think the American avoidance of kettles is because of their power consumption. Our kettles use 240V and consume between 2.4 to 3KW. Your 110V system would not support this power consumption level. Part of the reason for using a plastic bowl in the sink is to reduce the water consumption. Often our houses are too small to have a utility room so the washing machine lives in the kitchen. Our bathrooms are far too small for a washing machine. Basements are very rare in the UK.
I've replaced fuses in the fuse box next to the meter in the cupboard, and every house that I have lived in has had one. Our present fuse box has now been updated to a trip type of box which enables you to turn the switch back on when the repair has been achieved.
If you rent a holiday home in Florida near Disney it always comes with a kettle. Washing machine in the kitchen or a lot of homes have a utility room downstairs next to a kitchen near to the back door so we can take the washing out to hang out better for the environment we would only yous clothes drying machines in the winter months if we can't get our washing dry outside. Not good for our environment.
Most UK houses don't have any guns in them either.
only long bows with swallow tail arrows
@@kopynd1 crossbow here... I've progressed past Agincourt now...
you'd be surprised
@@MarkKnightSHG
My ex never mastered the longbow, nor do I think he has tried a crossbow but he has a compound bow.
Airconditioning is very rarely required in the UK because it very rarely gets hot enough to need it. We have central heating which is what is needed for most of the time. In the summer we might get hot weather for a few days a couple of times during the summer months. Most of the time in the summer the temperature is in the low to mid twenties which is nice. Neither cold nor hot. Just OK. So spending money installing airconditioning which we may use for a week or maximum 10 days is a waste of money. We use fans which are very adequate for the kind of temperatures that we get here.
I'm 59 and I've never once thought in all my life that using a plastic washing up bowl in the sink was odd.
WE don't do that in Canada either! But I do remember it when I grew up in Wales. I sort of remember mum saying that she did it so we didnt use too much hot water. I never remember mum saying that it was to reduce breakage or noise!
Definitely not odd!
from Germany: My mother used a plastic bowl for her holy life
@@brentwoodbayIf I don't use a washing up bowl in the sink. My crockery bangs against it the metal sink and chips or break's.
@@Justabitnosey As a matter of interest, do you have a dishwasher? We only wash our pots and pans in the sink, they don't chip or break. We only rinse crockery in the sink. Maybe that's the difference?
The stove top kettle and a teapot are very very different things
He's been told so many times but nothing sinks in!
@@sheilagalvin9342He never reads comments to his reaction videos.
Because that increases comments and that benefits his channel stats. He knows how to play this game.
😅🤣😂👏🏾👏🏾👍🏾
I was absolutely STUNNED to learn that Americans don't have kettles! This is bewildering to me! How could I not know this?
We have gardens, not yards. A yard is just an enclosed concrete space.
Or an old fashioned measurement term
In the North back to back houses have yards😊
@@Resgerr which isn't a garden
@@John-jw8rx err I know but we do have yards as well as gardens in Britain
@@Resgerr yes ,scrapyards and the like
A friend of my son went to live in America and married an American when it came to having a house built he insisted on having a brick biult house and all his neighbours said it was a waste of money but he had the last laugh when where he was living had a hurricane and all the wooden houses suffered severe damage and his wasnt hardly affected!
In places prone to earthquakes timber houses survive better than brick houses.
@@AppleTom9091 What about wildfires, tornados or floods?
Good point well made. To this day I still don't understand why Americans living in Tornado Alley still make houses out of wood. Surely they know what is coming sooner or later?!?!
Just curious, but was the friend of your son one of the three pigs?
We build houses in the UK, to keep heat in.
Also the Great fire of London.
Since bricks/stones are kind of lousy insulators compared to wood, I don't believe that, I think it's more a question of fireproofing and the lack of enough wood
@@matshjalmarsson3008 There is an inside wall usually made of breeze block and an outside wall of normal bricks. The insulation goes between the brick layers.
@matshjalmarsson3008 you live in a shed in winter, and see how warm it is.
@@no-oneinparticular7264 There is a reason for most houses in the north of Sweden being made of wood, and for the few ones in the south that are made of bricks having much, much thicker walls
In the UK it's ILLEGAL to have a standard power socket in the bathroom, hence no washing machines / drier's in the bathroom. Also in the UK the bathroom light switch is either a pull cord (from the ceiling) or it is outside the bathroom. In newer houses there is often a shaver socket, this is used either for shavers or electric toothbrushes, NOT hairdryer's or any other electrical appliance, as they have to be used in either the bedroom or similar.
A ring main is a very safe way of using electric as there is a box usually high up on a wall in the entrance hall that has large fuses for each ring of sockets, there is usually a dedicated ring for each of the following: the lighting circuit, upstairs rooms, downstairs rooms and another for the kitchen. The cooker has one all to itself, every plugin appliance has a fuse in it as well.
The reason for all this safety is due to our homes being often terrace homes, semi detached, apartments, and generally a lot closer to each other with high density towns and cities. Please bear in mind that technically you can drive from the southern most town to the northern most town (in Scotland) on the mainland UK in under 24 hours without breaking any speed limits! Our country is very small and would fit into Texas USA, but we have quite a lot of people (68 million) hence our homes are a lot smaller in comparison to those in the USA.
Hope this helps!!
Texas would overlap most of the West side of Europe, thats how Big Texas is.
Not true any more. Provided you have a RCD and observe the zone spacing.
I've got one under a showeroom worktop with a concealing door.
Tyler still doesn't know the difference between a teapot and a kettle .... maybe one day?
Someone will have to make a step by step guide video that he has to react to, and isn't allowed to miss the important bits by talking over it
@@dyread Pointless, as he appears never to read comments...or remember anything he reacted to more than a week ago.
Nah he'll never learn the difference as he doesn't shut up long enough to listen!
Most reactors seem to pause vids every 30 seconds to ask questions which are answered 20 seconds later. My teens say its something to do with copyright - they can't can't let it play too long incase it ends up as just them watching it.
@@dyread He has the memory of a goldfish. _"The... Cotswolds? I've heard of that. Is it a village?"_ He's reacted to multiple vids about the villages in the Cotswolds, but it doesn't register.
Plastic bowls in kitchen sinks - it's called a washing up bowl, and is bought separately. It's handy for emptying out dregs of pans, mugs, bowls, glasses, etc down the drain and keeping the water clean. It's handy as we don't have garbage disposal integrated into the sink. We scape food in compost bins.
And we don't wash up under a running tap like they do!
My Australian son in law ..always laughs about my plastic kitchen bowl …
@@joancline4844I’m surprised by that! I save the washing up water in the summer to water the garden! Water is precious and we should be aware that one day it could be in very short supply! - and if it doesn’t become so, your water bill will be lower! Win, win, I’d say!
For me it's handy because I have long legs, short arms and a bad back. I turn the bowl sideways so that the lip sits on the edge and lifts the bottom up a couple of inches. That way I don't have to constantly bend to reach things on the bottom. It does mean that I have to pull my sleeves up further though 😉
@@Lily_The_Pink972 but we do rinse dishes under a running tap
Our cold water is treated and drinkable straight from the tap. Hot water is not drinkable, hence not a plethora of mixer taps. Some people do have them. Bowl in the sink stops it being scratched by cutlery. Bag of plastic bags is for reusing for shopping, picking up after dog. All sorts of uses.
Not exactly, almost all houses have safe hot water now. Long story short way back when the hot water system was fed by a tank in the loft that usualyl wasn't sealed at all so there was the possibility that something could end up in there and die. For any house with that setup it was illegal to use mixer taps because if that happened and if there was a pressure loss on the main water line contaminated water could backflow through the mixer tap and contaminate the whole system. So seperate taps. And the idea that hot water wasn't safe ended up spreading and it just sort of stuck around long after most people had upgraded hot water systems.
This is only true for old houses that have not had their heating updated in multiple decades. Only if you have a vented (open) tank in the loft which gravity feeds your hot water is the hot water not potable. Almost all houses nowadays have potable hot water.
Yeah but Americans don’t scratch their sinks washing up because they end yet another energy guzzling machine to do it for them. What price a planet that’s possible to live on?
I listed 12 reasons why a plastic washing up bowl is a good idea. (Listed them under another comment but better not repeat them here as TH-cam would likely regard it as spamming.)
Why kettles are better than microwaves, is that the BOIL the water to 100 degrees C. That is how we make real tea. In the microwave it would spill out of the cup. Plus it is faster to boil water in a kettle than on the stove.
BTW whistling kettles are not called TEA POTS.
Microwaves heat by generating hot spots - by their nature, they heat unevenly, unlike kettles.
I live in Johannesburg which is at a fairly high elevation. The higher you are above sea-level the lower the boiling point of water so we cannot boil water to 100C. We can still make a decent cuppa though.
I use my microwave to heat my tea when it goes cold@wessexdruid7598
😊@@Rob-t4z7x
@@Rob-t4z7x You can in a microwave though. It may spontaneously explode when taking it out however.
Washing machines are in the kitchen because of the hot/cold water and drainage all ready there for the sink. (bathroom way to small for them)
Yeah, and our houses are a lot smaller than theirs - so only some houses have a 'utility room' by the back door, where the washer/drier can live...!
also I seem to remember that power outlets are not permitted in the bathrooms... so where would you plug your washing machine?
@@solaccursiothey would have to be hard wired.
Unless you have a mahoosive bathroom so you can have plugs (they are allowed only if they are more than 3m away from the bath or shower tray
And we don’t have electricity in the bathroom!
@@dasy2k1 thank you, I learned something today!
One I was amazed by is that most American homes don't have an eggcup!
or a kettle.
Not much chance of a boiled egg with soldiers and a cup of tea then!
Never had or ever want to try a fruity tea 😂
@ConnieWobbles One of the worst things I ever saw was an American get an electric kettle to try making tea in. IN!! She put the teabag IN the kettle and then switched it on to boil 😱 Needless to say, she didn't like the tea it produced
I GREW UP WITH AN EGGCUP IN OUR HOME BUT HAVE NOT USED ONE NOW FOR DECADES :( .
A bag of plastic bags are bags from the supermarket or shops folded up and stored in another plastic store bag.
Some people are organised and fold the bags, some of us are not and just scrunch them up and force yet another one into the bag! 😂
@@tanja9364 That used to be me but someone showed me how to fold them up really small and wrap the handles round the rectangle to stop it unfolding. Only thing is they never see the light of day again.
@@janemckay2325 😂
@@janemckay2325 I've found a use for mine - in fact I actually ran out at the beginning of this year - I put the ashes (not hot obviously) in one from my woodburner! Found that Ocado still deliver in plastic bags so I have a stock again!
@@tanja9364 they take up more room when screwed up - who'd have thunk 😉
2nd September to 6th September 1666 was a very significant learning point regarding the positive aspects of building brick houses. See London: Great Fire of!
I'm in Norway. Many houses have AC here...but it's used the other way around. To warm up the house in the winter..."varmepumpe". But you can also use it to cool down the house in the summer. Not that it is very much needed...
I don't drink tea but use my kettle about 10 times a day. Pasta, rice, cous cous, poratoes, vegetables, noodles etc
British sheds are totally different. We do put stuff in some sheds... but soe are work rooms, summer houses, or even a pub
Yeah, to many men, a shed is a place of refuge.
I'm Scottish :) i wouldnae be without a plastic sink basin in my metal sink. the bags thing is we reuse carrier bags at the shops so we have a plastic carrier bag then fill it with the other scrunched up carrier bags and keep it in a cupboard.
You will also find it is much cheaper to use the supermarket plastic bag as a bin liner than buy a roll of bin liners at 40 times the price.
@@Rob-t4z7x That is what I do, plus they're great for cleaning the cat litter box!
@@Rob-t4z7xI used to do that, when carrier bags were free. Now you have to pay for them, it's cheaper and more convenient to buy bin bags.
0:50 As soon as that 5% figure came up, I wondered - 'is it that many?' ... aircon is very rare, despite heatwave temperatures getting into the 30s (and even reached 40c a couple of years ago where I live, basically unbearable). British houses aren't really built to be able to fit aircon, there's no ducting, or space, and the power needed to run them is eye wateringly expensive.
5:10 'Fuses in power outlets' ... that's usually not the case. The fuses are in the plugs, not the outlets. However, if you have a power strip, there will often be a fuse.
6:20 'Lean to' porch - the first image is typical. It is usually just enough to cover the doorway. It's purpose is to give you a space where you can close up an umbrella without having to drip water into the house
7:20 Cupboard under the stairs - yes this is very normal. We don't have much space so we try to use it as efficiently as possible.
9:00 Our house electrics are stronger, so kettles are faster here (3kW kettles versus 1.5kW). Whereas in USA houses, using the hob is faster because it can draw more power.
11:30 Higher humidity for sure, hence more mould.
12:50 A ring main means that you can have a broken wire and everything will still work. But it makes electrical testing harder so electricians often don't like it.
14:00 Plastic bowl (inside the metal sink) is primarily to reduce the amount of hot water used. Power is expensive here.
15:00 Shopping bags. Shops have to charge for new bags, in order to reduce plastic waste.
18:00 Not enough space to have a room dedicated to just laundry. Basements are not common, but some older houses have them.
21:00 Yeah Harry Potter's house was very normal, almost a stereotype
But reversible aircon can reduce your winter heating costs as well as cooling you down in Summer.
There are fuses some outlets called fused connection sockets or fused spur.
Agree, there is NO WAY that 5% of British homes have air con. I've lived all over the UK, been in hundreds and hundreds of homes and NO ONE has it. Never even heard of anyone having it… and I've spent the last 20 years living in the hottest part of the UK!
The fuses are in the plugs.
There'll be a fuse box for all circuits in the house. In ours, the light circuits are front and back, while the sockets are downstairs and upstairs! One fuse blew about 16 years ago. I then had to try and find a specialist electrical store which sold the fuses a few days before Christmas.
Any Brit with common sense would keep a supply of different strength fuses in a kitchen drawer or in their toolbox. I hope you bought the correct amperage fuse for the appliance to which the plug was attached. Normally a 3amp fuse for something like a table lamp, a 5amp for perhaps a computer but a kettle or electric iron would need a 13amp fuse.
@@Rob-t4z7xI’m in Canada. We haven’t had fuse boxes installed in our homes, in decades. We use circuit breaker panels.
The sockets are also fused, so that if you electrocute yourself by sticking something into the socket that fuse will blow, faster than the circuit breaker trips.
cooker sockets have fuses. , as do those that are hard wired into the socket, like washing machines etc
My house is made from solid blocks of sandstone, the walls are 18 inches thick.
So it stays cool in the summer and warm in winter as its so well insulated..
Tastefully and well built - Americans wouldn't understand.
Same here our house is Mae of solid granite and are three foot thick. Cool in summer and warm in winter.
Sandstone has high thermal conductivity, so you don’t have good insulation. What you have is a lot of thermal mass, which will make the temperature very stable between the day and night. It will stay cool in the summer provided the nights are still cold, but a long run of hot nights for multiple days will eventually bring the temperature up. A sandstone house will not stay warm in the winter without significant heating.
Cob (mud and straw) homes in the westcountry have very thick walls.
Besides the reason the UK has largely deforested the vast majority of UK houses are made from red brick or stone because of their heat insulating properties.
We build double brick walls and have cavities for insulation. The whole idea in construction of a house in the UK is how to keep in as much warmth as possible rather than let heat out. This is why not many houses have A/C, you simply don't need something like that the vast majority of the year this far north.
The colder climate is also why many people have an enclosed porch so you have two doors to go through before you actually get into the house and why there's a hallway as a separate room rather than open plan living. You're adding more barriers between the cold winter weather outside and yourself inside.
It is a very long, cold and dark winter here in the UK. On the shortest day, known as winter solstice, sunset is before 4 pm. The actual daylight time is less than 9 hours and this time will almost certainly be gray and overcast. So we need much more sturdy houses that can withstand the harsh winters and keep in the warmth in the cold, wet and snowy conditions we get here.
The houses in America are like everything else there - big, cheap and vulgar.
Have you ever seen winter in America? 😅 ❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️
i have both hot and cold taps in my bathroom . simply put the plug in the sink drain then run the cold and hot together till you get temperature of water you want and turn them back off.
Beyond most Americans I'm sorry to say.
@@sheilagalvin9342 • It's equivalent to rocket science to most of them.
There are still a lot of older buildings in the U.S. that have separate taps in the bathrooms and/or kitchens. My first two apartments had them, and I did what you do, as most other Americans would. It is not beyond us, and it is indeed not rocket science. Good grief.
In regard to basements or cellars in UK houses, about 95 percent of those built 1700 to 1900 have them, roughly 65 percent of those built 1900-1965, but under 20 percent of those built more recently. Another thing often seen in UK houses, but very rarely in the US is an airing cupboard.
This statistic of about 95% is too high?
I live in a very typical terraced row of Victorian houses and none of them have cellars .
@Jill-mh2wn
The statistic is probably wrong, but a lot of houses prior to 1851 had basements, and a lot less after had basements.
The reasoning is simple, prior to 1851 housing tax was determined by looking from the outside to estimate rooms and floor space; having a basement meant you had space you didn't need to pay tax on.
After 1851 this was changed so it became based on the number of rooms(regardless of windows), so having a basement was less appealing that extra above ground space.
All of that is different now too, since it's based on estimated house price if it was to be sold in 1991, so basements are fairly adjusted for now which they weren't previously.
If we get a heatwave we just use an electric fan.
It all depends where the houses are built, what the geology is, and what the shape of the ground surface is - houses built on slopes might have something cellar-like
@@Jill-mh2wn Many, many, many older houses in Brighton and Hove have basements. More often than not, the buildings have been divided up and the basement is now a separate dwelling unit.
A ring circuit has the advantage that if one device blows a fuse, it doesn't take anything else out.
The ring circuit was introduced to the UK and many colonies after WW2 when copper was very expensive and Britain had little money. The ring circuit uses far less cable than the spur system where separate cables run from the distribution box to just one or two sockets.
London is in the south east and tends to be hotter than the north of the UK. Here in Manchester it is currently 13C/55F and raining. It getting above 70F is classed as a heatwave these days lol. Newer houses or those which have had new water systems installed have mixer taps but not always in both the kitchen and bathroom. In mine we have mixer taps in the bath and the kitchen but the sink in the bathroom has 2 seperate taps. Larger, older houses (Victorian and earlier) often have what we call cellars. Smaller and more modern homes generally don't. Some take sheds to another level and they are often referred to as 'Man caves' or garden rooms and some may have bars, TV's, pool tables etc in them or hobby equipement.
In our house, the cupboard under the stairs housed the vacuum cleaner and it's accessories also other cleaning products for wood flooring, carpet etc, a box with Brasso metal polish, shoe cleaning stuff, and a lovely sealed container with all the Christmas decorations. I still use a plastic bowl in the kitchen sink (not used to reduce noise), we used it as a way of saving water, because of the droughts during the 1970s, 80s. It enables you to use less water that is still deep enough to cover the dishes.
Kitchen sink bowls. Protects the sinks, whether metal or porcelain, you can empty your waste tea down between bowl and sink. Less items are broken, when washing up. . You use less water to wash up. You can buy a coloured bowl to match your decor.
Washing machine is usually in the kitchen or utility room, near the rear door, handy for access to washing line in the garden. It would be really inconvenient to have to carry a heavy load of washing down from an upstairs bathroom, through the house to reach a rear door.
Their bathrooms are big enough so they usually have a drier, often stacked on top of the washer - many US people don't even know what a washing line is!
Nah. If you fill the sink with water, in theory it's only slightly more than in a washing up bowl. It's not so significant a difference that the bowl is essential. Rinsing will use the same amount of water. I never understood this argument.
@@jiggyprawn never rinse washing up. Some sinks are a lot larger than others, so a bowl could mean a lot of water saved.
@@joyelmes7814 why on earth wouldn't you rinse the soap off your dishes? Madness. Madness, I say. I am not one for eating soap. Or drinking it. And I CAN taste washing-up liquid in an unrinsed cup.🤢
ETA: one can just not fill up the sink quite as much if it's larger. I have strong doubts that larger sinks are a widespread issue, or that they are such for washing up!
A ring circuit has 2 advantages. 1 it can carry a much greater current load so more devices on 1 circuit. 2 it’s a fail safe if there is a break in the wiring the the electricity flows through the cable both directions. So only the socket with the broken wire is affected all other sockets on the ring would remain operational.
Our preferred summer outdoor game (cricket) comes with a choice of long sleeve and short sleeve pullovers.
LOL Americans don't seem to appreciate that the UK is WAY further north than America. The middle of the UK is the same latitude as the top of Ontario, Canada - up where all the snow is.
A plastic bowl is really useful if you have a single sink.
It keeps the washing up water hotter for longer.
It is less noisy than metal sinks.
It takes the wear a tear and scratches that build up in continual use.
Dirty water or rinse water can be tipped direct into sink and not into bowl.
The entire bowl of wash water can be removed to use the sink without throwing the wash water away.
It can be used as a drip tray for hand washed clothes to the drier or outside line.
They come in range of attractive colours.
They use less water than whole sink would.
When old they can be used as a tidy for cleaning products or garden use.
And, most importantly when water has to be paid for, you can use the bowl for hand washing and then chuck that water on the plants in the garden.
and keeps your knives sharper
I thought of 12 reasons of my own. The ones you didn't list here are…
I've actually thought of TWELVE reasons just now why I think the washing up bowl is important…
*1. Hygiene*
The large metal sink always seems to be grimey and takes a lot longer to clean properly, so it's used more for when you're cleaning big, dirty things such as over racks. Whereas the plastic bowl is REALLY clean and hygienic and takes absolutely NO TIME to wipe round.
*2. Instant drainage*
If you're washing up and want to quickly change the water, you can INSTANTLY pour out the water and start refiling. Without it, you'd have to pull the plug and wait for the water to drain before you can refill.
*3. Aesthetically pleasing*
Washing up in a metallic sink has a kind of harsh, gloomy industrial feeling, like you're a kitchen worker. But putting your hands into that soft, nice coloured bowl really lifts one's spirits and is generally a friendlier experience. You wouldn't want to lie in a METAL bath tub, would you? The bowl is like a bathtub for your hands.
*4. Focal point*
When you walk into a British kitchen, the central focal point is really the plastic bowl. It acts like a guide to say: "This is where your hands will go, this is where you're going to be standing, this in the central focus point of the kitchen." Without the bowl, the kitchen seems kind of soulless and un-human.
*5. Reach*
Most sinks are quite deep and you don't want to have to reach all the way down to the very bottom. The plastic bowl lifts the items up, bringing everything closer to you.
*6. It matches the rack*
It's standard practice for Brits to coordinate the colour of our plastic washing up bowl with the colour of our plastic washing up drying rack. In fact, we often buy the two together as a matching set.
*7. Plug hole avoidance*
For me, this is the most important one… I find the plug hole absolutely DISGUSTING! No matter how clean you keep the plug hole, I do not EVER want to put things I eat off into a sink where they might not only TOUCH the plug hole, but if you wanted to drain the water, things like cutlery could very easily end up getting LODGED in the plug hole!
Teapots are for making our tea, coffee etc in. Kettles are for boiling the water to put in our teapots or in a a mug to make the tea.
I have just emptied my plastic bowl from my washing up in to plant pots outside, therefore recycling the water to a degree and not just chucking it away. The detergent used in washing up does not harm the plants, the water has had two uses. Better than throwing nice clean water on the floor through a hose. What we see on the news here, when an area of the US has had a tornado. We see these wooden houses completely destroyed, apart from one thing, the brick built fire place and chimney. I know it's the argument of black boxes in aircraft, "why don't they build the planes out of black boxes". But really, It would be interesting to see how well they would hold up if they built them more like proper houses rather than garden sheds!
Have you really looked at footage of tornado damage? Tornadoes don't care what the structure is made of - they will demolish a brick building just as easily as a timber one. Some, like the Jarrell, Texas tornado even peeled up the pavement out of the ground. There were brick schools and hospitals in Joplin, Missouri that were badly damaged or destroyed. There are numerous videos on TH-cam which show just how destructive tornadoes can be. And for the most part timber structures are well-built, and they do have more 'give' than brick or stone structures when it comes to earthquakes. I do love the looks of brick buildings. St. Louis is actually known for its old brick buildings. There are some lovely old neighborhoods with brick homes. Some of these areas were unfortunately hit by tornadoes and badly damaged, and recovery took years.
@@CherylVogler I know they wouldn't be completely untouched, just better braced against such things. If you are hit directly then I feel pretty much nothing would stand in its way. I watch a lot of US procedural crime dramas. Such as SVU. They refer to old red brick houses in the more up market side of towns. I've seen some of Boston too. The US is a massive country full of timber so I can understand the reasoning behind the wood usage.
@@janneroz-photographyonabudgetYou did pretty much hit the nail on the head about the abundance of wood here. That is certainly a big factor in it's use for building materials. Definitely a tornado that is between an F0 and an F2 won't do as much damage to a brick structure, but as you said a direct hit from anything, especially a more powerful one will do a lot of damage. And as one comedian who's name I forget said, It's not the wind, but what's in the wind. 😮 Thanks for your response! 😊
Walls a wolf can't blow down are a luxury?
😅🤣😂👏🏾👏🏾👍🏾
@@mw-wl2hmdepends where you are. Out west the vast majority of homes are wood framed.
@@mw-wl2hm ya, you also said most are brick or stone. Again, that will depend where.
Our kettles boil faster than one would in the USA due to 240v electricity supply in UK compared to 110v in US. But you know this already. I've seen you do a video on it.
Also Tea making is only one use of a kettle. Boiling water is used for coffee, pot noodles making jelly, custard, gravy, speeding up saucepan water for vegetables, pasta, rice, boiling eggs. filling hot water bottles, killing weeds, making Oxo, Bovril Marmite drinks. etc, etc. The list is endless.
I boil a kettle five to six times a day. And only boil the amount of water I need so it's more efficient.
Mains voltage makes no difference. It is the power rating of the electric kettle that determines how fast water can boil. In the UK, most are rated at 3,000 watts or so. Those available in the USA seem to be half this, or even less. I can only assume that domestic electrical installations in the USA are not designed for appliances that draw that much power from a standard power point. They would be fine if run off the separate circuit that supplies the oven and hob.
Thank you. You can use it for so much. I’m born and raised American and I know this!!
My Dutch house has a cupboard under the stairs that duals as a stairs into my cellar. My garden used to have two sheds, but now it only has the one, because my name isn't Arthur Jackson, lol. Our grounded plugs only have two plugs for the currant to flow, so they are more versatile. Grounding happens through plating on the sides. You can turn them upside down if it's more convenient. We Dutch also like our kettles. They used to be little metal containers you'd put on the gas stove to boil water in. Even had an nice loud whistle in the cap so you'd know when it'd be ready. Hence the name flute kettle. Electric's faster and cheaper I guess, but I do miss that whistle sometimes. Dish bowl, check! Bag of bags, check! Mix taps, lucky me. Washing machine's in the kitchen, because the kitchen opens up to the garden where you hang your clothes to dry, if it isn't raining. No dryers here. A chancel is the elevated place ministers preach from. Front door letterbox, check! This was fun.
The electric kettle is the last thing we pack when you move house, so it's the first thing we can find when we arrive at the new home.
Our houses have more mould largely because of the weather, brick built houses last longer and the damp proof course deteriates and has to be replaced, it's expensive so is not always replaced when needed, hence mould.
Homes become damp due to lack of air circulation. Open the windows once in a while. 😊
Where I am in the north of England, on the 30th of June at just gone mid-day it's 58 Fahrenheit or 14 Celsius and it's raining.
There's no need for air conditioning the vast majority of the time, it's more insulation that houses need, especially up here in the north where it's often significantly cooler than in the south of England.
We've literally just had a four day heatwave where the maximum has been around 80F/27C but now it's gone a lot colder. It is predicted to stay around the 60F range as a daily maximum for the next week or so.
What you have to remember is that the UK is on a similar latitude to places in the middle of Canada.
Today's [June 30] maximum temperature in Sydney, Australia, [it's winter here], was 14.5c and some rain.
Ohhh... reading your comment is making me so sad..27c being a heatwave... compared to our 35-45c summer days & 20-30c nights. 🇨🇦
Plastic bowls. Valuable. The heat is not sucked out of the water by a metal sink. It also prevents staining of the sink. A bag of plastic bags. When you keep getting new ones, the best way to collect them together in another bag. All in one place instead of all over the place. Two taps. Achieve the temperature you want in the bowl, by adding a little more hot or cold to suit requirement. Saves trying to get the right temperature by jugging the tap.
Separate hot taps in kitchens and bathrooms was because the hot water boiler or immersion cylinder was fed with a tank in the attic or loft. This arrangement gives higher hot water pressure at the taps, but the tank water isn't as clean as cold water direct from the mains.
Separate cold supply is considered safe to drink.
It is also illegal to combine mains water with water from the hot water storage tank unless you fit a non-return valve to the mains supply so that any contaminated water from the mixer unit is not syphoned back into the public supply. This law is rarely enforced now as in most houses the hot water comes from sealed tank and not from the old open storage tank in the loft.
I have an older style home in New Zealand that has a tank in the roof cavity to increase pressure. Our mains pressure was low.
The fact that you don'[t have kettles is BIZARRE! I drink coffee all day but every time I see an American film where the coffee pot as been on all day makes me feel ill - it must be really stewed and not very hot. A kettle means we make hot drinks with fresh, boiling water - ta da!
Most Americans don't have coffee pots, they have coffee makers.
oh dear, you drink instant coffee! get yourself a coffee maker with an insulated jug, ours stays hot for most of the day without needing to heat the jug
Eggcups, kettle , plug with a fuse, power outlet with on/off switch, two taps, washing machine in the kitchen.
Everything you mention here (aside from the eggcups) are mentioned in the video🤦♂
They'll eventually get there ☺
@@rosey-19 Don't bank on it.
We have separate kitchens, separate dining rooms, separate lounges....our lounges aren't covered in cooking oil...and food smells
The fashion these days is for "open plan living" where the kitchen, dining room and living room are all one room, even if they weren't when the house was built. Personally, I hate that style of living, I like to shut the door on the kitchen! They even seem to be building flats these days where the kitchen is installed along one wall of the living room. Awful.
My Florida residence has a open floor plan . My flat in the UK has a door in every room even the kitchen. And if i want the big light on in the bathroom i have to turn it on from the outside unless i want to use the little light from the mirror. And i love my sash windows in my uk flat . In my Florida home the windows are big but they lack the character and charm of my flat in the uk
Air conditioning isn't needed here. We do get hot period of summer but its not often
Yes I think we had three days of hot weather last year.
19:15 we generally dont have basements because of alot of wet weather causing mold and/or flooding. But you find cellars in very old buildings if you count that.
Same in Canada we have fuses in our power outlets. If a power goes out in one part of the house, just check the fuse box (in my house the fuse box is in a garage) which switch it is and just flick it back on.We have kettles and electric kettles as well.
We do get 30oC days, but being an island we have a very moist atmosphere, our biggest problem is damp, youcan wrap up agai st the cold but damp goes through to the bone.
And it also means when we get very hot days it can get humid and miserable quite quickly. When the air just feels sticky.
@@bunnyslippers5183yes indeed but not enough sticky days to warrant air-con.
@@RobertLloyd-f3p very true!
@@RobertLloyd-f3p very true.
Our kitchen sinks are mainly metal too, or porcelain. Since we mostly still don't use dishwashers we wash our dishes in plastic bowls in the sink since it's smaller and you don't need too much water and can rinse the soap off into the actual sink so you don't affect the dishwater.
I don't think I know anyone in the UK that doesn't mostly use a dishwasher
@@daboy12s I know few that do!!
6:05 all of my north American houses have had closets under the stairs. It's just that they weren't accessible from the side (like I imagine UK ones are but might be wrong) but from the end. My current one acts as the network closet (since the stairs are centrally located) and storage for bigger items.
Your utter perplexity at the idea of a washing-up bowl. Hilarious 🤣
15:34 In the UK, we get these plastic shopping bags. There are thinner ones and bags that are thicker called “A Bag For Life” (The thicker plastic allows the bag to last longer). To store all these bags, we will normally use another bag so we don’t have tones of bags all over the house.
The kitchen is where most housework is done. A washing machine in the bathroom disgusts me. A bathroom should be a place of peace.
My dishwasher is in the Butler's Pantry. He objected to it at first, but is happy not having to wash his own teacup.
@@frogandspanner😂
A kitchen washing machine is normal and convenient
Not to mention it's not good to have electrics in a damp environment
Plumbers are not allowed to put washing machines in a bathroom in UK, due to danger of electrocution.
One use for a plastic washing up bowl is that you can fill it up with soapy water and move it somewhere else to clean, it also allows for faster refilling as you can tip it out into the sink and start to refill it as the dirty water is still going down the sink drain, it's also less likely to scratch or chip glasses and dishes and you can't accidentally unplug it while washing
Most houses have mixer taps however older houses had separate taps as the hot taps were supplied by old water boilers and cold water was either direct from the mains or via a cold water tank in the loft space to give you some water pressure. A basement is rare except for expensive houses where the servants would work or Victorian houses and northern houses where the ground was more favourable, usually used to store the coal
15:54 yes. They're purchased entirely separately from the sink, usually at a supermarket or similar, just drop them in and remove at the end of its life or if you move house.
US houses have not always had AC either. It is a fairly new technology. You will not find AC much anywhere before some 50 years ago. If you watch early movies you will see US houses also had separate hot & cold taps, not mixer taps, which are also now more common in the UK. This is to ensure that the cold supply is fit to drink, when mixing hot 7 cold water may lead to bacteriological contamination & therefore illness. The water can be mixed in the sink to reach the required temperature. That's what the sink is there fore. When it is hot in the UK, which is anything above about 25 degrees centigrade, which seems not very warm in most of the US, it becomes really unpleasant, because it's usually high in humidity. Also daylight lasts for many hours during the summer months. Sunrise may be as early as 4 am, & sunset as late as 10 pm, lots of time to heat up on a sunny day, which means the nights are not long enough for things to cool down much.
The US has not had microwave ovens for ever either, they are another very recent invention. Kettles are used to heat water for far more than just making tea. This is good to heat water for pasta etc instead of doing it on the stove from cold. Also we use it often for instant coffee, soups etc etc. It is useful also for cleaning stuff & many other things. We put a plastic washing up bowl in the sink to protect both the sink & the plates etc from damage. It has to do with most houses in the UK having been built before electricity supplies & AC, washing machines, or even indoor plumbing etc etc were even invented. So such stuff had to be accommodated in houses as they were. You couldn't just stick extra spaces on to add such stuff. As many houses in the UK are built in long joined terraces, you can't just stick AC units on every one just for the possible need for a few summer days. the cost of fitting & operating these is just not worthwhile. We kept are good timber in the past to build warships, & use fireproof materials for houses, like stone, brick & tiles, after such events as the Great Fire of London in 1666 ad. There is not as 'standard' British house, but a great variety of types, designs & sizes across the country. New houses tend to be more uniform in design, because some building companies are nation wide, & there are minimal requirements that they tend to stick to for the regular sort of new built homes. Semi-detached is normal, where 2 homes are built as one, divided into to a pair in sort of 'mirror' fashion. Single built homes are more rare, because they take up more space & are therefore more expensive. Most people live in houses that are 100+ years old, adapted as much as they may be to modern standards, but retaining many elements of the past.
The UK is at the same latitudes as Alaska & Newfoundland. NYC is on a level with Rome. The contiguous USA is at the same latitudes as the Mediterranean and North Africa. It's no wonder houses in the US need A/C.
Americans never seem to understand this...
I have to say, I feel like consumer home kitchen microwaves have been around for a long time, at least to me. Weren't microwaves hitting the consumer market in the 70's? My parents got a Toshiba microwave that had that faux brown wood grain look. I think it was from 1980. They used that microwave for ages. I was using that microwave around the year 2000. It still worked.
@@wessexdruid7598 Actually, most do understand this.
@@CherylVogler The vast majority of those I've spoken with don't, only those actually in the UK. They assume everywhere is like the USA.. I've lived & worked in WV & AZ, spent time in NYC, FL & DC. How many times do you see ppl on YT complaining that the UK doesn't generally have A/c?
@@wessexdruid7598Quite a lot. I watch several TH-cam reactors who live in the UK, and they often moan about how hot it is and lament that they don't have air conditioning. I didn't really expect to see much of it when we were in the UK , and neither did our friends when they were there. We knew you didn't get the same type of weather we did here (in the Midwest - I know there are areas in the states where they generally don't need a.c.). It was so cold in Scotland when we were there in August that we had to buy gloves and wool scarves! That was a surprise!
5:40 We don't have fuses in most power outlets, but we do have fuses in our plugs
14:30. This is probably a hang over from when we had mainly porcupine sinks and dropping anything into it would result in the item breaking
I think your spell checker has put 'Porcupine' when it meant Porcelain. I don't like the sound of a porcupine sink
I live in a stone cottage that used to be a chapel from the 14th century
That's fascinating! Needs a feature here.
lean to entrance porches are standard as it rains a lot here and water will warp the door or door frame over time as the moisture gets in.
so having a little bit of cover (even from the heat) can make the door (and door frame) last a lot longer.
Air con why. We are lucky to hit 70 degees in high summer in Scotland 🤣
In South Africa' where I now live, anything under 70 degrees is considered to be Artic weather.
I love you, man , so much so that when your next video pops up, I prepare by turning the volume down 2 notches
😂 I used to play in our cupboard under the stairs. I had a desk and light in there where I would sit and read to my teddies 😂
Your posting made me smile. Best comment ever on TH-cam!!
Teddies are the best ❤🐻.
@@vincentryals2478cheers
@@Pooky-Catalways
Cute
Chancel repair liability is a real thing with some properties, but easily dealt with. I was able to purchase insurance against it in perpetuity for about £2.70. It’s a case of “they’re never going to land you with a claim, but you just have to have it so that all the little legal niceties are covered”.
Under the stairs storage space existed in older homes in North America - like homes over 100 years old. But, more recent designs have the basement stairs and upstairs right under each other.
The University of Manitoba did an experiment. Straw houses are warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer, whereas brick houses are cooler in the winter and warmer in the summer. There is a movement to build new houses with straw insulation between the walls. Straw houses also have less mold.
In the three little pigs, brick represented the least primitive of the three types of societies, and nature (represented by the wolf / howling wind) was presented as an enemy which needed to be conquered.
Any American who wishes to purchase a kettle can get one in Canada.
A grocery bag full of plastic grocery bags - Tyler, ask your mom.
square bowl in sink - build shelves, use to store toys
Under the stairs bathrooms exists in America and sometimes just storage exists in America!
You actually can find electric kettles in the U.S. at nearly any store that sells household goods.
@@CherylVogler Yes I know that’s how I have one. It’s just that most people don’t realize how good they work.
@@TwogirlsabroadI have yet to buy one because I have a small kitchen with little counter space which is already crowded with other "necessary" items! Maybe I need to get one and just switch it out! 😊
@@CherylVogler I highly recommend it!!! When I bought mine I threw out my regular kettle. If you have an Aldi near you wait and they will have them affordably again. I used them for the first time in the Europe and feel in love with the performance of them.
14:25 yes it is also good if want to hold water to do cleaning we can use plug but bowls save more water
The classics are: Carpets in the bathrooms, Pipes on the outside of the house (so that they are easier to repair when they break from freezing), Heavy and thick curtains and a fireplace to reduce draft from the leaky sash windows
Carpet in the bathroom? Bit of an eighties thing! 😂
@@Essemm52 Perhaps, mostly, but I've seen it quite recently.
I've seen it here in Sweden too, one of my friends family had it in the 70ies. We thought it was weird, but that family was kind of weird anyways
@@matshjalmarsson3008 I have to confess that I went through a ‘weird’ phase in the eighties! Peach pink carpet; it matched the bathroom suite! Don’t judge me! 🤣
@@Essemm52 I don'tjudge, I'm just observing.
In the early 90ies my father installed floor heating in our bathroom, that was our way to make it more comfortable. He also installed a dryer on top of the washing machine and a couple of electrical outlets for shavers/hair dryers (or that was probably earlier).
We look down on Britain in many ways, some things just seem backwards, I mean sorry but fuses in the plugs, why?
But we love you!
@@matshjalmarsson3008 Thanks for the ❤️ Regarding the fuses in plugs, in the case of a short circuit it protects the user from electric shock by blowing immediately. This also is less likely to cause a fire and also protects the appliance from serious damage. All in all a good thing. It all comes from when we adopted the ring main system to save copper, with each connection then needing its own fuse. This is why we have the larger plug with three pins. I’m no electrician, and probably haven’t explained it very well, but that’s the gist! Modern fused plugs last twenty to thirty years anyway, so most will outlast the life of the appliance!
When I was growing up in Cambridge, Ma. during the ‘50s & ‘60s we didn’t have a dishwasher. We did the dishes by hand from a plastic tub we purchased to fit the sink. The dishes (and pots, pans, and utensils) would be placed in a rack to dry. The sink was white enamel over metal. The plastic tub protected the enamel from chipping. 😺
Why would a washing machine in the kitchen be disgusting? You don't wash your dishes with the laundry. You take the linen bin/laundry basket into the kitchen, (when you're not cooking or washing up), and you put the laundry straight into the washing machine and close the door. The laundry and the food/food preparation arears don't meet up.
And what do you think is going to happen if you put your washing machine on while you're preparing food or cooking? You're not going to get dysentery or some incurable highly contagious disease . TBH I can't imagine you doing any more cooking than making a sandwich, or doing the washing. I bet your mum or your wife does it all for you!
A washing machine in the kitchen is no different than a dish washer, they both clean dirty items.
The main disadvantage of having the washing machine in the kitchen is the noise.
17:30 He is probably referring to having single mixing taps that’s all.
Old houses may have two taps, every modern house/apartment would have a single and mixer
Us electric supplies are too weak for kettle so it takes twice as long to boil 😂
We actually have 110v and 220 v outlets in the US.
@@marydavis5234 interesting, thanks
@@marydavis5234same in Canada. And circuit breaker panels. No need to have extra fuses
@@nono86753 fused plugtops are the superior design as each individual appliance has its own fuse, the US and Canadian electrical system is very antiquated by comparison.
Not true. I've used a kettle in America and it works fine.
The plastic bowl in the sink is for washing the dishes as the sink is also used as the laundry tub,
Tyler, Many houses in the UK are small, it's a small country. I live in a stone built house , that's well over 100 years old. Yes I have modernised it internally somewhat, electricals , plumbing etc. but still kept the character. We don't have the weather to warrant AC, heat is more important. I have been to the States, it's a massive country, you have huge houses, lots of room we don't have. However, really the US is backward in a lot of things, which I found very interesting. Loved my time there, even though it was in the middle of a hurricane.
Our last house was built in 1840, the walls were nearly three feet think, in places, it was never hot, or cold...
We don't have smaller houses in the UK because it's a small country. That's ridiculous. You can have as much land & as big a house as you want, if you can afford it. There are some enormous houses in Britain, & some with thousands of acres of private gardens etc. It's just the standard houses for most people are built to the minimum permitted size for living space, so that developers can squeeze more houses on each piece of land & get more money, while the local council gets tax for each household annually, so it's to their benefit also to maximise the number that can be fitted in. If the Government increased the space requirements for each household then houses could be larger, with space for laundry rooms, built closets, more bathrooms etc.
but the developer lobby is too powerful so this doesn't happen as profit matters more than people.
Only 1 who gets it 👍@@danielferguson3784
I think the washing-up bowls were first used in the days of large china "Belfast" style sinks. To conserve precious hot water when only washing dishes. The larger sink would have been used to wash larger pans , and also clothes prior to washing machines. The bowls were originally enameled metal.
Prior to modern multi-sink fittings the bowl also allows you to rinse items under the tap without diluting or cooling the bowl washing water.
A teapot and a kettle are two TOTALLY different things! Also the higher voltage transmutes into more power available to boil the water quicker, thus the kettle is more efficient in the UK
As this dimbo has been told umpteen times. I don't think I can watch anymore of these idiotic vids.
My washer and tumbler are in the utility room which is adjacent to the kitchen
In the UK spending loads on air conditioning didn't make sense if you only needed it a few weeks a year, and only every other year or less. It is becoming more popular as the summers are getting consistently hotter. It only becomes unbearable if we have a run of hot days and hot nights. So the house bricks don't cool down overnight.
Yes, we sometimes wish we had aircon for about 7-10 days a year. Strangely, all cars have it.
I installed a couple of air source heat pumps a few years back, they are both reversible for air con in the summer via ceiling ducts, works a treat all year round.
@@lordprotector3367 Solid brick houses take a long time to warm up or cool down. A car is just a thin sheet of metal, one in a dark color left in the sun for a bit gets hot enough to do serious harm.
@@george-ev1dq Sure enough, but you need a well insulated house for them or your electricity bill could be something frightening.
@@astranger448 My lecky bills are zero and I get a few hundred quid from my supplier in the summer months , the power comes from a 20Kw solar array which runs everything including the heat pumps and the septic tank.
About the airconditioning: it's the same in Finland as in the UK. That's because traditionally the equipment was really expensive, and also the old kinds of airconditioners would only work in one direction, _cooling_ the rooms. So it could be only used a month or so in a year. The rest of the time it would have to be switched off because it would be working against the heating that's keeping the room temperature at the regular 20...25°C (68...77°F) while the outside temperature could be -40°C (-104°F). So, 11 months out of a year it would be doing nothing, which would make it unsure if the device would still work when needed, after the outside unit (usually designed for warmer climate) being exposed for months to the winter weathers. So, it's not necessarily better to have something and not need it, because the long time of not using it might get it seized or something, so it might not work anyway when the few hot days start. And when the hot days would start, there would be a lot of customers needing repairs the same time, and for many the repairs could get only done after the need would be over for the year. So, you would end up paying a lot for nothing.
Only in the recent decade or two, when a better version of airconditioners -- known as heat pumps -- appeared, they have started to become more common in new houses. They can be used as part of the heating because they can both heat and cool, whichever is needed, and the models that have been designed for cold climate... well, they can handle the cold climate.
Instead, heating naturally has always been considered an essential feature where I live. The heating is quiet because it's meant to be used around the clock and around the year, and the indoor temperature stays the same, be the outise temperature -40°C or +15°C. Though, the harder the heating has to work the drier the air gets. But when I visited the US about a decade ago (San Francisco) and stayed in a motel, the heating was barely existing. At nights it got cold in the room, and the only heating was a loud fan-like thing in the wall that was too loud for sleeping, and a minute after it stopped the room was just as cold again, due complete to lack of insulation (the walls were thin and you could see daylight between the door and doorframe). And I saw in a publication there a story recommending using used household water to water the backyard (apparently there was scarcity on water). It sounded funny to me, because the recommendation was given like it was a universal truth, but where I live, pouring water on a snow bank wouldn't make much sense.
I guess the generalization from this is that in different parts of the world there can be scarcity of something while another place has the same thing in abundance, and vice versa. That's why what is essential and needed can vary a lot.
About the houses made of bricks vs. wood: In Finland most of the houses are made of wood. But they are not flimsy. I guess it's again because of the climate that the US houses tend to have thinner walls, but the material in itself doesn't necessarily make something inherently weak. The difference between the UK and Finland could be that Finland is rather sparsely populated and has a lot of trees, so in traditionally it would have been natural to use easily-available wood for everything possible.
i dont think kettles work as well in the US, its the lack of electric power 240 v 110 volts, the 'plastic bowl' in the sink is called a basin and washing machines went in the kitchen because when they were invented they had to be plumbed in, meaning the choices were kitchen or bathroom but with limited space in the bathroom and the ability to place a washing machine under the counter in the kitchen made it easier
Except that when most people started having washing machines in their home, they were twin tubs that loaded from the top and people didn’t really have the type of fitted kitchens that are prevalent nowadays, the were a limited amount of fixed units that were proper cabinetry and some that were separate cabinets that were moveable. So washing machines went in the kitchen because they were the only room in the house that were both plumbed for water and had power outlets.
I was born in the mid 70’s and I have very vague memories of my Mum using a twin tub and of our kitchen being renovated to a modern fitted kitchen with no moveable kitchen cabinets.
We actually have both 110v and 220 v outlets in the US, the 220v are for washing machines, clothes dryers, electric stoves,
Not all old houses have bathrooms, my old house didn't have a bathroom until we had an extension built on the end of our kitchen for it.
Before that we used a galvanised metal bath that we filled by boiling lots of saucepans of water on the stove. As kids we'd have to bathe in front of the living room fire, when we were older, we'd bathe in the kitchen with the door locked.
When our new bathroom was built, we had to have a fire burning all year round to heat water for the bath, luckily my father was a coal miner & we had 12 tons of coal delivered every year (on a 1 ton/month basis) as part of his union inspired contract. There was no central heating initially, until we had it installed due to a council grant - that was coal fired again, we didn't have gas until fairly recently.
Our bathrooms tend to be smaller & we rarely have electrics in there. Kitchens are next to back yard/garden where we put washing to dry on sunny days. Less use of stairs
I live in Canada and most homes have kettles, some people do use the microwave. Only time I use a saucepan is if my kettle broke and haven’t bought a new one yet
Never seen a home without one 🇨🇦
It's easy to mix water to the correct temperature with two taps. Just put in the sink plug and add water from the two taps to the correct mix to get the desired temperature. How easy do you need it?
Americans on TH-cam reacting with shock at separate hot and cold taps…
Meanwhile me in Massachusetts this year for my friend’s 50th and what did the toilets in the venue it was held have…separate hot and cold taps.
Some uk houses have a utility room. In which case the washing machine/drying facilities might more likely be in there than the kitchen.
Some uk houses have a below ground room called a cellar. Some cellars would equate to the us basement.
A lot of what was called 'a leanto porch' would be enclosed by half & half large windows above wooden panel sides.
We can control the temp in our houses, it’s called a window and it’s free to operate 😂
All my windows are open about 6 inches, back patio door also open about 6 inches.
Never had any mould and my house is 75 years old. It's currently 15C (59F)
☘☘☘☘
@@annfrancoole34 • My house is 150yrs old and isn't mouldy either. No cavity walls either. 🥶
And our dryers are ‘fresh air’, cheaper too!
Mixing taps have single "spout" with a separate handle to turn on hot and cold water. I worked in office for year that mixer taps in "restrooms" that somehow didn't actually mix the water. When you used them you actually got cold water around the outside of boiling hot water.
USA: Roof shingles.
UK: roof tiles, slates, or thatch.
They aren't even true shingles made of wood. They're just imitations using bitumen sheets.
Roof shingles in the U.S. can be made from a variety of materials, from asphalt to clay, copper, metal, slate, and wood, and more. The style and pitch of the roof can dictate the material used. Location and weather conditions are factors in shingle choices. An area prone to hailstorms would need a more durable material than a region that rarely gets them.
About the sink bowls (basins).
Some older houses have a hot and cold separate faucet they do not mix, they use it to soak dishes.
Lol all these things are in older houses on our East coast.
I live in NYC my washer and dryer is in my kitchen.
I clean my table and it works as an excellent folding table or I take it in a basket to a room.
They have cellars not really used as a playroom
OK. Can't believe I'm pointing this out but sinks have a plug, put the f(bleep)ing in then turn on the two taps and whallah mixed water or use the washing-up bowl (plastic) to wash with personally I find mixer taps never give out water that's actually hot only lukewarm where as the two tap systems can give almost ice water and water that's close to boiling
as a brit, we have air con in our house, needed for 2 - 4 weeks of the year when the heat gets unbearable - especially at night, you can use it as a heater also 😀
We just open windows. The humidity in UK makes it seem much hotter.
Using a Plastic Bowls in the sink not only helps in the ways stated in the video, a plastic bowl also:
1. Uses less water (waste less).
2. Keeps the water hotter for longer (better thermal insulation).
3. Means that you can't accidently, 'pull the plug', out of the drain, thereby wasting more water.
4. Means that, in an emergency, e.g. you need to wash chemicals from your eyes, you can very quickly and easily change the use of the Sink, by simply lifting the bowl out and putting it on the side worktop. Most bathroom sinks aren't big enough to get your whole head under the tap.
5. Means that, if a glass is broken, while washing up, you don't have to 'fish' around for the bits of glass, and risking being cut. You simply pour the contents through a sieve and a cloth, or some kitchen roll and the glass is collected safely.
The plastic bowl is there to stop your crockery from chipping. It’s against the law to build a new house and have plugs in the bathroom for fear of electrocution.
I live in Southern England. probably the warmest spot you'll find, just south of London in a place known as 'The Garden of England'.
Sometimes we get temperatures that are uncomfortably hot outside in the day, but our houses are mostly built of solid brick that has a very high heat capacity so they tend to keep an even temperature. It's just not a problem indoors.
Similarly in winter. It never gets that cold either. So in answer to your question, yes, the UK has generally pleasant weather.
You mix hot and cold water in the sink. I have a mixer tap in my kitchen and it bever gets hot. I have to boil a kettle for hot water. I prefer two taps.
Really? I have mixer taps in the bathroom and kitchen and they get plenty hot.
Electrically we are doubly protected because we have a fuse in the plug plus a circuit breaker on the distribution board egich controls half or whole floor. Usually the lighting circuit are on a seperate breaker to the power sockets.
We dont have hurricanes.. I guess originally we had more clay and less woodland. Watttle and daub was the origional.. I never realised your plugs were not separate.. Thank you Tyler.
Except for when we do have hurricanes!
Leaving aside flats (apartments) and detached houses, you have to consider history to understand housing for working class/middle class people in the UK.
The Great Fire of London (1666) spread so quickly due to the wooden buildings, so building regulations were introduced requiring new buildings to be constructed primarily of brick or stone.
Land for building is scarce, so houses are quite small. There are still many Victorian "two up, two down" working class houses built before indoor toilets and indoor plumbing (these mostly now have rear extensions for bathroom and toilet). Late Victorian and Edwardian terraced and semi-detached houses (more expensive) for skilled workers and the middle class had a dining/living room, a front parlour and a small kitchen downstairs with two main bedrooms, a box room (third bedroom), and small bathroom/toilet upstairs. The overall size of most modern houses has not changed much in over 100 years (the footprint of a standard 3 bedroom house is around 400 square feet with the largest room around 130 square feet).
So, how do we face the challenge of fitting appliances and possessions into a floorspace roughly the same size as before the appliances were invented? We have to cram a dishwasher and washer/dryer under a kitchen worktop and fit cupboards high on the walls. A combined fridge/freezer takes up less floorspace than two separate units. We can knock out internal walls to create open-plan kitchen/dining room/living room areas. Enclosed front porches are built to store coats and shoes. Bunk beds and divan beds with drawers are great space savers. Mounting a shower over the bath takes far less space than installing a separate shower. The area under the stairs may provide as much storage space as a medium-sized wardrobe and chest of drawers. Loft conversions can provide an extra bedroom. A rear extension can provide an extra room (such as a laundry room or living room) and ease the storage problem.
'Fuses in our power outlets' NO - we have fuses in our PLUGs.
I think the American avoidance of kettles is because of their power consumption. Our kettles use 240V and consume between 2.4 to 3KW. Your 110V system would not support this power consumption level.
Part of the reason for using a plastic bowl in the sink is to reduce the water consumption.
Often our houses are too small to have a utility room so the washing machine lives in the kitchen. Our bathrooms are far too small for a washing machine. Basements are very rare in the UK.
US houses are both 240 v and 110v, phase to ground gives 110v and phase to phase gives 240v
I've replaced fuses in the fuse box next to the meter in the cupboard, and every house that I have lived in has had one. Our present fuse box has now been updated to a trip type of box which enables you to turn the switch back on when the repair has been achieved.
@@johncabell3772 updated? circuit breakers have been standard issue for the past 45 years
If you rent a holiday home in Florida near Disney it always comes with a kettle.
Washing machine in the kitchen or a lot of homes have a utility room downstairs next to a kitchen near to the back door so we can take the washing out to hang out better for the environment we would only yous clothes drying machines in the winter months if we can't get our washing dry outside. Not good for our environment.