A while back, Khanh commented on my posting about our new apartment that we should explain the water system. In that posting, I showed a picture of one of the bathrooms and noted that the bathroom is also the shower stall and the water goes down the floor drain. This is very typical throughout Viet Nam and southern China (and maybe many other parts of Southeast Asia -- I just haven't been there to see yet).
The water supply for the house is on the roof in a stainless steel tank. The tank holds 1,000 liters, or 264 gallons. There is a pump at the ground floor that we turn on once in a while to refill the tank from the underground city water supply. Water pressure from the city is not enough to get water to the upper stories otherwise. That is the reason for the tank -- to feed the bathrooms or other water sources on the upper floors. Single-story houses don't need this.
Even though the tank is insulated, the water that flows down to the sinks and showers is lukewarm, so we rarely have need for hot water for the shower. If we do want hot water, though, there is a flash heater mounted on the wall above the shower on the top floor.
I flip the 220-volt switch in the bathroom (while I am standing in a puddle of water, of course) and the heater supplies hot water (too hot, actually) for the time the switch is on.
I don't leave it on very long, though, because it is much more cooling in this 95ºF weather to use the cool water and air-dry in the breeze.
Since there is no hot water service to the kitchen, we heat water to rinse the dishes after washing. This does not appear to me to be typical behavior in Viet Nam, though. I always see the street stands rinsing their dishes with normal city water. I guess there is such fast turnover of dish use that dysentery does not become a problem. Enough said.
