Horne Engineering have designed and developed the Heatstat T2 (TMV2) thermostatic mixing valve specifically for the domestic market. Additional information about this market is contained in our newsletters,


Thermostatic Mixing Valves and the Domestic Market: The Facts - ISSUE 2'.

'Thermostatic Mixing Valves and the Domestic Market: The Facts - ISSUE 1'.

How to run a safe bath? Turn on the regulation
The Times, Wednesday 7 January 2004.

The inability of the typical Briton to run a bath correctly has prompted the Government to consider making safety devices on hot water taps compulsory in new homes.

Every year there are 570 serious bathwater scald injuries in Britain, three-quarters of them involving young children.

Many are caused when parents run a bath for their children by turning on the hot tap first and the child jumps in before any cold has been added. Others occur when parents top up the hot water in a bath tub already occupied by children and forget to turn it off.

Treatment costs the NHS tens of millions of pounds as the victims are forced to undergo years of painful skin grafts and surgery.

Now under a "make bath-time safer" initiative, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has ordered a review of the building regulations with a view to requiring all newly built or converted private properties to be fitted with safety devices to control the temperature of water coming from household taps and showers.

Phil Hope, the minister responsible for the building regulations, said the development of a new and relatively cheap safety valve had now made it practical for the Government to introduce the new rules.

"Safe water temperatures are essential since most accidents occur with the young, elderly or infirm getting or falling into baths that are too hot - or when they are topping up with hot water," he said.

Although hospitals and nursing homes have been required to fit hot water safety devices for years, domestic properties have not, largely because the appliances available were expensive and bulky.

Now, thanks to the efforts of the manufacturers and voluntary sector safety campaigners, a thermostatic mixing valve, or TMV has been developed for domestic use. With the small T-shaped appliances costing about £60 to buy and a further £70 to install, the Government hopes that all homes will eventually have them. The cost of fitting them in new properties is negligible.

TMVs are fitted to the hot water pipe beneath the bath. They work by adding cold water to the supply to keep it at a pre-set temperature and can be fitted to both mixer taps and separate hot taps.

Howard Porter of the Thermostatic Mixing Valve Manufacturers Association, said the problem of scalding at bath time arose from a mismatch of legislation and common sense.

Hot water in homes usually came directly from the boiler, which was required by law to be heated to 60C to prevent bacterial contamination, particularly Legionella. "Anything heated above 48C is dangerous and likely to scald," Dr Porter said.

Dr Porter said that TMVs were needed because people did not know how to run a bath properly. "Most people turn the hot on first and then top it up with the cold. But the best way is to turn on both taps and regulate it until it reaches the temperature at which you can comfortably put your arm in it." he said.

The experience of other countries where efforts had been made to teach bath-running techniques had failed miserably, leaving governments with no other option than regulation.

"In Australia they had a big campaign to teach people how to run the bath correctly. But nobody paid the slightest attention so they made safety valves compulsory instead," Dr Porter said.

It is widely accepted that TMVs should be set at 43C for baths likely to be used by children and older people. For adults who like to have a hot bath it can be set at 47C.

The actress Amanda Redman, a patron of the Children's Fire and Burns Trust and a scald victim herself (as a child she pulled a pot of soup over herself) said the valves would make a big difference.

"Parents can minimise the risk of scalding by closely supervising bath-time, so that a child has no opportunity to turn on the hot tap," she said.