Time has come to give full play to smart legionella control solution in making buildings smarter, safer and more sustainable
Staring down the barrel of the most severe energy crisis since the oil shocks of the 1970s, governments all across Europe are urging businesses and consumers to examine every option in controlling energy costs and reducing waste, right now, while they try to forge a longer-term solution. All against a backdrop of destruction caused by a rapidly changing climate.
ZiggyTec’s IoT solutions, which are designed to make buildings smarter, safer and more sustainable, have a significant role to play in helping to resolve these twin crises, and we believe that the time has come to give such solutions full play.
We’ve previously written about the significant impact indoor air quality monitoring can have on reducing wasted energy by optimising energy-guzzling heating and ventilation systems in large buildings.
More recently, we’ve been urging those responsible for Legionella control in commercial buildings – a mandatory compliance activity – to consider a Smart Legionella Control solution. This automates time-consuming, wasteful and potentially inaccurate manual checks, improving health and safety, and making life much easier for those responsible for compliance reporting.
As attractive as they are, given today’s crises, these great benefits almost pale in comparison to the fact that a smart legionella control solution can eliminate the need to flush up to 95% of taps – hot and cold – literally pouring money and precious resources down the drain as the meter-wheels spin ever faster.
In Ireland, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) advises that Legionella risk can be controlled by implementing measures that prevent the growth of Legionella within water systems, primarily by avoiding water temperatures between 20 and 50 degrees Celsius. And by ensuring that water has not been allowed to stagnate – again giving Legionella a chance to grow. In the UK, detailed guidelines known as ACOP L8 are available to duty-holders, outlining everything from risk assessments, to SOPs, to control measures.
One typical control measure during traditional checks is tap flushing. A trained and qualified person will go around every kitchen, toilet or shower room in a building – or anywhere there is a tap – and will manually record the temperature of flowing water, to ensure that Legionella has not had a chance to grow, and that the risk of a building user contracting Legionella is therefore negligible.
Of course, the protection of human health is of paramount concern, and we support all measures taken to safeguard it. But you don’t have to stretch the imagination too far to grasp the impact on the environment and the bottom line that this method entails.
We estimate it uses up approximately three litres of water to get an accurate manual reading from a cold tap, and five litres of water to get the same for a hot tap. For the latter, it’s hard to estimate the volume of gas or electricity required to achieve the optimum temperatures as different buildings have different heating systems – but it’s safe to say it’s a significant amount of energy that could otherwise be saved.
And when you think about the number of taps in the number of buildings in the number of cities, towns and villages throughout Ireland, the UK and Europe to which a Legionella control strategy is applicable, that’s when your eyes will start to water.
ZiggyTec’s Smart Legionella Control solution is, therefore, a cost-effective method of meeting your Legionella control obligations while saving massive amounts of time, money and resources. By automating temperature readings every 10 seconds, and sending these readings to a cloud-based platform that gives daily, weekly, monthly and real-time data on both temperature and usage, meaning you will always be able to keep on top of your compliance obligations.
The system also provides real-time alerts of non-compliance events, allowing clients to take action in a proactive, timely way. Data is transmitted 24/7 over a dedicated Internet of Things network and is kept completely separate to buildings’ network systems. All communications costs are included in a simple, cost-effective monthly subscription fee.
The long-life battery lasts approximately 10 years. Our smart system detects when batteries are running low, and we replace them when needed, free of charge. ZiggyTec’s state-of-the-art dashboards also show non-compliance events in real time, and automatically highlight other concerns.
The reports will automatically reduce the need for flushing by up to 95% which will save thousands of litres of water – and tonnes of energy – every year, ensuring a rapid return on investment.
In addition to your automated instant alerts, you have access to ongoing customer support from our dedicated team. We’re on hand to help with any new configuration requirements, any maintenance issues, or anything at all.
Talk to us today to find out more about how you can save time, money and resources with our Smart Legionella Control solutions.
