Legionella - A Case for Change

In December 2021, Boris Johnson confirmed that England would enact Plan B measures in response to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus across the UK. As part of Plan B, people were once again advised to limit their social contacts by working from home if they could, which meant thousands of offices have sat vacant - with measures now starting to be relaxed.

However, this period of reduced use has posed a considerable threat to the safety of many offices' water systems. When shut down for prolonged periods, the risk of finding harmful bacteria in the water, such as Legionella, which causes the potentially fatal Legionnaires' disease, increases significantly. Sufficient mitigation therefore needs to be in place.

Fortunately, IoT technology is helping to mitigate the risk of Legionella growing in water systems. Office facilities managers can have greater confidence in eventually welcoming people back to the workplace safely with remote monitoring.

A legal obligation - and a practical challenge

All employers and people in control of premises - including landlords - have a legal obligation to identify, monitor, and control the risk of Legionella bacteria in their water systems. Failure to mitigate sufficiently can result in significant penalties, even if no outbreak occurs.

The traditional approach to managing Legionella risk involves regular site visits for water flow and temperature checks. However, this can be costly, inefficient - especially when visiting multiple sites - and inaccurate due to human error and limited information in-between visits.

IoT monitoring: a smarter approach

With IoT solutions to monitor water temperatures during periods of reduced use, bacteria growth no longer has to be such a challenge for facilities managers. Benefits around time, cost, water and energy savings also support an organisation's sustainability goals.

As the pandemic demonstrated, we could face further advice to work from home and staff shortages that could impact monitoring routines. A solution that helps prepare for these incidences would provide considerable benefits to facilities managers and the organisations they serve, both now and moving forward.

Your water safety records show what happened on inspection day. But what about the other 364 days of the year?

Continuous temperature monitoring on flow and return pipes provides 365 days of evidence - not a single inspection-day reading. This dramatically reduces the manual burden of compliance while strengthening the evidence record that regulators and insurers increasingly expect.

Key benefits of IoT-enabled Legionella monitoring

  • Continuous temperature data from flow and return pipes - sampled every two minutes
  • Automated alerts when temperatures fall outside safe operating ranges
  • Reduced site visits, cutting travel costs and carbon emissions
  • Supports ACOP L8 compliance with a complete, timestamped evidence trail
  • Remote oversight across multiple sites from a single dashboard

This document explores new ways of managing Legionella mitigation obligations through IoT - delivering cost savings, reduced carbon emissions and improved compliance.