| A tap is a valve for controlling the release of a liquid or gas (gas tap). It can refer to a valve for tap water (a faucet) or a valve connected to a keg of beer to allow one to control the flow of the beverage, also called a beer tap. In a broader but less common sense, it may refer to any water spigot.
Older style water outlets for bathing, sinks and basins generally had separate hot and cold taps. A more modern tap design is the 'mixer', a single tap whose handle moves up and down to control the amount of water flow and from side to side to control the temperature of the water (achieved by mixing the hot and cold water together). Latest designs do this using a built in thermostat.
Hot and cold taps - faucets
In an unfamiliar house, it may not be immediately clear which tap is hot and which is cold.
The hot tap is generally coloured red and/or labeled H or Hot. The cold tap tends to be coloured blue, or green, and/or labeled C or Cold. (Note that the French for 'hot' is chaud, which starts with a 'C'.) Mixer taps may have a red-blue stripe or arrows indicating which side will give hot and which cold.
In some countries there is a 'standard' arrangement of hot/cold taps: for example in the United States the hot tap is generally on the left.
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