Tap

Tap

Shot outside Victorian College of Arts, there is this webbed tap near a tree.

Water for baths, sinks and basins can be provided by separate hot and cold taps; this arrangement is common in the UK, particularly in toilets. In kitchens, and in the U.S. and many other places, mixer taps are often used instead. This is a single, more complex, valve whose handle moves up and down to control the amount of water flow and from side to side to control the temperature of the water (achieved by mixing the hot and cold water together). Latest designs do this using a built in thermostat. Mixer taps are more difficult to fit in the UK than in other countries because traditional British plumbing provides hot and cold water at different pressures.

If separate taps are fitted, it may not be immediately clear which tap is hot and which is cold. In English-speaking countries, the hot tap generally has a red indicator and/or is labeled H or Hot. The cold tap generally has a blue or green indicator and/or is labeled C or Cold. Mixer taps may have a red-blue stripe or arrows indicating which side will give hot and which cold.

In some countries there is a 'standard' arrangement of hot/cold taps: for example in the United States the hot tap is generally on the left. This convention applies in the UK too, but many installations exist where it has been ignored.

(courtesy wikipedia.com)