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Legionella monitoring
About Legionella monitoring
Knowing the temperature of the water coming out of the taps weekly or even daily is a key requirement formanaging the risk posed by the legionella bacteria.
This bacterium grows in warm, stagnant water. Remotely flushing the water at different parts of the system is important as the water temperature in long pipe runs connecting little used outlets is frequently a good breeding ground for the bacteria.
The real time information across the entire building’s water system is therefore a critical element in managing the risk, as usage and occupancy within the building changes over time. The system uses Orion radio network technology, which means it is simple to install and low
cost to run.
HOW THE SYSTEM WORKS
The unit is available in two formats, a smaller unit that deals with one 15mm copper pipe and a dual unit that does two pipes. The diagram below shows a typical installation. The system is battery powered and reports in every fifteen minutes and does a flushtest once or more a week, depending on the schedule set. The battery pack is easy to change.
The testing times and flushing schedule can be controlled from the secure web based application. The data is stored for twelve months. If any temperatures within the system are not correct then alerts are sent out by email to the relevant people. These email addresses are specified in the system by the client and can be altered or updated at will.
The server also automatically monitors the individual units and alerts on their battery status and communications quality. The communications range can be kilometres and the batteries last three years or more.
Water Management Programs
There are no vaccines that can prevent Legionnaires’ disease.
Instead, the key to preventing Legionnaires’ disease is to make sure that building owners and managers maintain
building water systems in order to reduce the risk of Legionella growth and spread.
THE COST BENEFITs
The cost benefit is in automated compliance. The unit price, either purchased or leased is not only lower cost than the labour rate to do the tests manually over a year but the data is recorded and stored automatically.
This removes errors and immediately profiles the raw data to look for alerts that should be sent on, saving more time and money.
