Regular servicing and maintenance is essential to keep your boiler running safely and efficiently, and to meet the requirements of manufacturer warranties. But employers and building managers also have a legal obligation to make sure water is safe, so water treatment is one of the most important elements of our servicing programmes.
Risk Assessments
Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, employers and those in control of premises, such as landlords, must take steps to reduce the risk of exposure to legionella bacteria. These bacteria can cause conditions such as Legionnaires’ disease, a potentially fatal form of pneumonia.
A risk assessment must be conducted, and the Health and Safety Executive recommends considering the following risk factors:
- Is the water temperature in all or some parts of the system between 20 and 45 degrees C?
- Is water stored or re-circulated as part of your system?
- Are there sources of nutrients, such as rust and sludge?
- Is it possible for water droplets to be produced and, if so, can they be dispersed over a wide area, e.g. showers and aerosols from cooling towers?
- Is it likely that any of your employees, residents, visitors etc are more susceptible to infection due to age, illness or a weakened immune system? Could they be exposed to contaminated water droplets?
Tailored Treatment
Once a risk assessment is completed, 361 Servicing engineers work with you (or the responsible person you appoint) to carry out water treatment and management work.
We’ll make recommendations for a service and maintenance programme that is specific to your system and the risks you’ve identified, and prioritise issues that require immediate action. We’ll work with you on guidelines for checking water temperatures, and how problems will be reported and investigated.
Some of the vital areas our servicing work addresses include:
- Removing dead legs
A redundant outlet or length of pipe is hazardous because water does not flow through it regularly. We’ll check the system for these issues and remove or adapt pipework to reduce the risk.
- Replacing failing pipework
Rust creates a serious health risk, while damaged and broken sections of pipework can increase the running costs of the system.
- Disinfecting and descaling
Along with the obvious health risks, a build-up of scale from minerals in the water has an insulating effect, preventing effective heat transfer and making the system less efficient.
Our engineers have the expertise to treat water safely and effectively, without damaging the system with the wrong type or proportion of chemicals. Contact us to find out more about how we’ll go a degree further to meet your servicing needs.
