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In the U.S., every plumbing fixture must also be coupled to the system's vent piping. [1] Without a vent, negative pressure can slow the flow of water leaving the system, resulting in clogs, or cause siphonage to empty a trap. The high point of the vent system (the top of its "soil stack") must be open to the exterior at atmospheric pressure.
Designated as an American National Standard, the Uniform Plumbing Code (UPC) is a model code developed by the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials to govern the installation and inspection of plumbing systems as a means of promoting the public's health, safety and welfare.
The exception to this is when a storm sewer operates at full capacity, and then can become pipe flow. Energy in pipe flow is expressed as head and is defined by the Bernoulli equation . In order to conceptualize head along the course of flow within a pipe, diagrams often contain a hydraulic grade line (HGL).
A major part of this network will consist of interconnected pipes. This network creates a special class of problems in hydraulic design, with solution methods typically referred to as pipe network analysis. Water utilities generally make use of specialized software to automatically solve these problems.
A second type of system uses a thermostatically controlled pump which gets installed at the farthest fixture from the water heater. These thermostatically controlled pumps often have a built-in "normally closed" check-valve which prevents water in the cold water line from entering into the hot water line.
The IPC is the most widely used plumbing code in the United States and is also used as the basis for the plumbing code of several other countries [citation needed].Wide adoptions are important as they help reduce manufacturer and end-user costs by allowing the use of materials across a wide user base, thus allowing economies of scale in the production of materials used in construction.
This code is also used as the basis for the plumbing codes of some other countries. Another model plumbing code published and utilized widely across the United States is the Uniform Plumbing Code , published by the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials ( IAPMO ), a multinational operation with offices in 13 nations.
This arrangement prevents any contaminants in the sink from entering into the potable water system by siphonage; this is the simplest form of backflow prevention. A common use of the term "air gap" in domestic plumbing refers to a specialized fixture that provides backflow prevention for an installed dishwasher. This "air gap" is visible above ...