Thermal
Well known advantages and disadvantages with the thermal regime are as follows.
Thermal Advantages
- No equipment cost.
- Common practice (safety in numbers).
Thermal Disadvantages
- Increased scaling in calorifiers and pipe-work, providing nutrients for legionella.
- Legionella merely dormant on cold water supply
- Difficulty maintaining minimum and maximum temperatures at all times on hot water return.
- Total lack of any residual control.
- Risk of scalding.
- Requirement to install thermostatic mixing valves (TMVs) to protect hospital patients, the young and the elderly from scalding.
- The re-introduction of breeding sites for legionella in and down-stream from TMVs.
- High energy costs.
- High maintenance costs, particularly on TMVs.
- Ecologically poor solution.
Summary
Our customers, including all sections of health-care, education, residential buildings, and hotels confirm that the thermal regime is extremely difficult to maintain across the site. It is increasingly recognised by estate managers that this common method of disinfection is not best practice, and not consistent with proper risk control.
Responsible persons are increasingly seeking more effective control methods, which are preferably ecologically sound.
Furthermore, the costs and difficulties of implementing the thermal regime by far outweigh the capital costs involved with copper-silver ionisation. While the overall running costs of the thermal regime, including chemical flushing on the cold water supply and periodic superheat treatment of hot water, will vary from site to site, our customers experience a viable pay-back after installing Tarn-Pure.
See our case histories of two hospitals and a care-home that switched to Tarn-Pure™
