Mastodawn

Pentropy Oct 8, 2023

@nixCraft you are old when...

...you remember having seen this before...

15 years ago 😱

niems Oct 8, 2023

@nixCraft
I have seen this, but with a light switch also operating the plumbing in a building. i.e. Lights off -> No water supply

@niemalsnever @nixCraft thats suprisingly common actually, I have a light switch that operates the water pump at my current place, and have lived at other places that do that. ridiculous.

niems Oct 8, 2023

@rml
so if you need water you permanently have to have that light switched on?

@niemalsnever yep, and make sure no guests ever touch it! unfortunately its in my guest bedroom, which causes problems whenever someone comes to stay lol

@rml @niemalsnever how is this not discouraged/forbidden in the wiring code? Whilst its not uncommon in UK to have water heaters and other such devices controlled by wall switches, they are made for stronger current than a light switch and often labelled, and lights should be on a separate 6amp circuit (many houses have more than one lighting circuit, for each floor)

@vfrmedia @niemalsnever its an old house in Hanoi from the 50s fwiw, and they here didn't have the resources to transition from rooftop water tanks (like most of the world today) to a proper plumbing grid until US sanctions ended at the turn of the century. or, maybe 50% of Hanoi had plumbing by 1982, but the waterworks project was being financed entirely by the Soviet Union, and once their economy started to fall apart it was halted until the 90s when Europe gradually started trading with Vietnam again, and since US sanctions ended most of the country has received proper plumbing; still not drinkable, but thats a rather rare luxury across the world.

@rml @niemalsnever ah, I had thought you were somewhere in the USA..

I found Vietnam's most recent wiring code (updated 2014 from 1984) and from auto-translating it its similar to any European country with 230V - but doesn't seem to require separation of the lighting and power at distribution boards, just that appropriate protective devices and earthing should be used. So I can see how such situations could arise, especially if there is a shortage of materials..

@rml @niemalsnever what exists in Vietnam this also ties in with wiring practices in many older installations of Central/Eastern Europe from Soviet times onwards even to the present day (only in recent years is everything being updated to the newer common European standards)

@vfrmedia @niemalsnever yeah, much of the urban center where I live went up in 50s after liberation from the French during land reform, when the government was basically just giving everyone supplies to build their house, they just needed to build it; so everything in the older parts of the city is super ad-hoc in construction, which comes with some funny stuff like this, but also is part of the magic because the city is a patchwork of maze-like alleys that you can get lost in, endlessly. I still discover new things all the time within a kilometer of my place where I've lived for a few years and walk my dogs around for an hour daily.

@vfrmedia @niemalsnever but i would note I've had this at places I've lived in Brooklyn and Baltimore as well; but in each case, factory loft conversion type places.

@rml @niemalsnever

maybe the practice of having a separate lighting circuit (as opposed to a breaker for each part of the building) is more common in some countries (mostly Northern Europe) than others - it was common from the start in UK as light and power were once separately metered, but in countries with long dark nights makes sense as a fault in a power circuit causing a fuse/breaker to open won't put the whole room into darkness..