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SCHOOLS, HOSPITALS & PUBLIC BUILDINGS
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David Meacock, Technical Director at Cistermiser and Keraflo, outlines how the latest water management solutions are playing a key role when re-commissioning buildings that have been temporarily mothballed or repurposed to meet flexing occupancy levels.
Protecting public health from tank to tap
W
hile staff may be returning to UK workplaces in the highest numbers since the start of the Covid-19 crisis, levels remain far below pre-pandemic levels at just 23.3%. It’s abundantly clear that planning to return to something approaching ‘business as usual’ is presenting innumerable challenges for everyone involved in looking after buildings. As restrictions disappear it’s critical to ensure that public health continues to be protected, especially when it comes to the provision of safe water. One potential health risk relates to Legionella in water systems that were been used during lockdowns, or that have been underutilised due to lower and flexing building demand. Buildings should have in place a risk assessment and a Water Safety Plan, but dormant water systems will result in bacterial growth, especially as we move towards warmer weather.
All aspects of a buildings’ water systems need to be reviewed before re-opening fully or in part. In some cases, these reviews will be carried out by teams of people on the ground. But for some more forward-thinking organisations, this critical work is being carried out by state-of-the-art cloud driven solutions, like LinkThru TMU from Cistermiser, which is being deployed in numerous educational, healthcare and public sector facilities across the UK.
What is TMU water monitoring? In short, Intelligent Temperature Monitoring Units (TMUs) deliver automatic wireless monitoring, providing
real-time temperature readings on a computer screen, in order to track and monitor hot and cold water temperatures in pipework systems which are critical to risk assessments. A connected TMU can be
Diagram illustrating LinkThru system IoT connectivity
