Building Codes

There are some things that Americans take for granted. After living as an ex-patriot for a year now, I feel like I can comment on at least one of these. Building codes. We have them. Other countries, not so much.

Or if they have codes, they don't have codes like we are used to--which is more likely. Case in point: electric outlets.

In the states, most buildings have an outlet on the wall every 12 feet or so. In an average bedroom, you'll generally have a plug on each wall. Each of these plugs will have two receptacles where you can plug something in. In a kitchen or a bathroom, there will be GFCI rated outlets, which have fuses that will reset because of the nearness of a water source to that electric outlet. It's a safety issue.

When we first moved to Dubai, I noticed that the plugs in the rooms are a little different. It's a 220 volt, three pronged system. Okay, we need adapters but how hard can that be? Not hard, they make really robust adapters that take all plug types. So we bought a handful and thought we were set.

But them you begin to look around. In each bedroom there is only one or two outlets. And each of those outlets has a single receptacle. It's centered up on the wall where you are most likely to put a headboard. And that's it. If you want to run a TV at the other end of the room, good luck.

Each wall outlet has an on/off switch. You can cut off the electricity to the outlets you are not using. That seems like a very 'green' approach. Especially if you were not using some outlets...but when you don't really have enough outlets and you're using all of them, it's a wasted extra.

The bathrooms actually are the most stunning to me. When we first arrived in Dubai, I did a lot of furniture shopping. I noticed that the middle easterners bought a lot of dressing tables. It seemed like a furniture item that I didn't need, so I moved right past them. Then I realized that the outlet built into the wall of the bathroom (the single outlet in each bathroom) is designed expressly for men's shavers. It has a special receptacle. It will ONLY accept shavers or electric toothbrushes. You can't plug in a blow dryer or flat iron or curling iron. Not at all. No adapters allowed.

All of a sudden I can see why gals need a dressing table. I'm blow drying and curling my hair out in the bedroom... where there aren't enough outlets.

Dubai could use a building code that required a few more outlets. And perhaps a GFCI equivalent would make the bathrooms a little more blow dryer friendly. Just sayin'.

--Sandee Wagner