I'm surprised some houses still use this. As it's impossible to leave the building without a key in case of a fire. I suspect it may even be illegal today.
Coming originally from the UK I was surprised about how relaxed fire and safely regulations are in rented accommodation is in Germany.
This is super clever, but I bet some of its potential applications conflict with egress safety requirements/laws. (If a door is part of an exit route, you probably can't require a key to open it.)
Makes me wonder: how are prisons handling fire safety?
Cynically, probably through legal exceptions and active 24/7 staffing that can double check fire alarms.
This is super clever, but I bet some of its potential applications conflict with egress safety requirements/laws. (If a door is part of an exit route, you probably can't require a key to open it.)
Makes me wonder: how are prisons handling fire safety?
Certainly the meeting point is in the central yard, and there are probably hundreds of false alarms for fun.
I've never seen that outside the US. Keyholes both sides of the door, everywhere. When it's closed, you need a key or you don't get out.
Well, TIL. Never realized this was a US-specific thing.
Add Finland to the list. Pretty much all of Central and Northern Europe I believe. I don't think I've ever seen a residential exterior door that needs a key to open from the inside.
As an American living in Switzerland one thing that has consistently surprised me is the difference in fire safety rules: not having any smoke alarm or fire extinguishers in homes is common, and it's also common to be able to lock people inside rooms/apartments/buildings so that they can't leave without having a key. It's possible to lock someone in my apartment even if they have the key if the door is locked with th…
You are much more likely to die in a fire in USA, so it makes sense for Americans to take more measurements to prevent it. But in for example Switzerland fires is not a big thing so there is no need to have any laws against it. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/fire-death-rates
I'm also guessing german europe (swiss, austria, germany) lives in an earthquake free zone, so they can make stone buildings without much consideration for earthquakes while most of the US population has to think about earthquakes and/or hurricanes, so housing is more likely to go towards flexible and flammable wood.
As an American living in Switzerland one thing that has consistently surprised me is the difference in fire safety rules: not having any smoke alarm or fire extinguishers in homes is common, and it's also common to be able to lock people inside rooms/apartments/buildings so that they can't leave without having a key. It's possible to lock someone in my apartment even if they have the key if the door is locked with th…
Don't know about Switzerland, but as an European living in the US, I think the American fire safety rules are what they are mainly because most houses here are basically matchstick houses built from prefab low quality wood which would get devoured by flames in minutes. And the fire-resistant building materials are super toxic when they actually burn. So fire is a very big deal... Anecdotal, we had a fire in my buildi…
It’s probably more to do with the age of the buildings. Generally you don’t need to update the safety level to today’s standars unless you do some major changes.
It may or may not be the case that US houses catch fire more often, but fire is always a very big deal if it does happen and then you really don’t want to be locked inside the ‘fire-proof’ house.
> You can't leave through my (brand new, to-code) front door from inside without a key Just to clarify, after you lock your front door with the key, it’s impossible to unlock the door from the inside without a physical key? The vast majority of locks have a physical unlocking mechanism on one side (one side is unprotected, usually the inside)
> The vast majority of locks have a physical unlocking mechanism on one side Not where I live. Sure the lock that you use to stop it blowing open in the wind (1) when you are at home has a latch on the inside (making it easy to open door to visitors etc), but you also have the real lock that you use when you leave the house require keys from either side (2). I think most home insurance in the UK would either not insu…
As long as you don’t have easily breakable glass within reaching distance of the unlocking mechanism, why is a lock that can be unlocked from inside less secure?
The English description on that page doesn’t make it easy to understand what this key does. ”Its name comes from the fact that it has two key blades (the part which activates the bolt) at each end of the key, rather than the usual single blade” How does that lead to the name “Berlin key” or either of the German names? I would guess “Berlin key” comes from the fact that it predominantly is used in Berlin. ”After unloc…
I'm surprised some houses still use this. As it's impossible to leave the building without a key in case of a fire. I suspect it may even be illegal today.
As an American living in Switzerland one thing that has consistently surprised me is the difference in fire safety rules: not having any smoke alarm or fire extinguishers in homes is common, and it's also common to be able to lock people inside rooms/apartments/buildings so that they can't leave without having a key. It's possible to lock someone in my apartment even if they have the key if the door is locked with th…
I guess it could still depend on country, but in EU smoke alarms are mandatory.