Behind the headlines
Behind the headlines News Analysis with B&ES, the Building & Engineering Services Association Air is the new water
Building owners have recognised the health and safety risks posed by their water systems for decades, but the danger from poorly maintained ventilation has been more of a grey area…until now, says Richard Norman
for water systems have been standard practice for many years – largely thanks to the level of publicity surrounding outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease.
Indoor air quality and the as- sociated health and safety risks from poorly maintained ventila- tion has always been a more mysterious affair to the majority of building owners and opera- tors. Out of sight out of mind – that’s to be expected, but even when the risks have been ex- plained they have struggled to get to grips with strategies for protecting occupants. However, that is all set to change thanks to the compre- hensive revision of the ventila- tion hygiene industry’s main source of technical guidance: TR/19 Guide to Good Practice – ‘Internal Cleanliness of Ventila- tion Systems’, produced by B&ES Publications.
Since it first appeared in 1998, TR/19 has been widely accepted within the building engineering services sector and by the UK insurance industry as the standard to which ventilation systems should be cleaned. It is now almost 10 years since this comprehensive guidance docu- ment was last revised, but it now provides the latest legal re- quirements for testing and cleaning of ventilation systems.
Highlights
This newly updated edition of TR/19 was developed to com- plement the new British and Eu- ropean Standard BS EN 15780: ‘Ventilation for Buildings – Duct- work – Cleanliness of Ventilation Systems’ introduced in 2011. It highlights the important role ventilation hygiene plays in maintaining healthy indoor con-
ditions for building occupants. However, the revised B&ES guidance also explains best practice for ensuring that kitchen extract ventilation is maintained to minimise the fire risk associated with grease accumulation, which is not covered by BS EN 15780. The association felt it was im- portant to cover this area as well
because of the increasing aware- ness among building owners and their insurers of the role extract ventilation plays in fires. If there is a coating of grease inside the ductwork it will act as a highly efficient transmitter of heat and flames through the rest of the building – all it needs is an ignition source and kitchens have plenty of those.
Often a fire will start inside the ductwork simply because the temperature becomes high enough to ignite the grease and 90 per cent of catering fires are exacerbated and intensified by ignition of grease deposits in grease extract ducting. As a result, many insurance providers will simply not cover commercial kitchens or, where insurance is provided, will include caveats in their policies that can lead to claims being rejected on the grounds that the building operator has failed to maintain the ventilation effectively – or, simply, can’t prove that they have mainte- nance strategies in place. Many insurers insist that, un- less ventilation systems are cleaned to the standards set in TR/19, commercial kitchens are effectively uninsurable. B&ES member firms are regularly called to testify as expert witnesses in cases where fires have broken out in kitchens and then spread along grease-laden ductwork to other parts of the building. Even if there is a good fire suppression system in the cook- ing area, the risk remains be- cause a ventilation duct may run through several floors touching the structure of the building in a number of places. This creates a huge risk for spreading fire. In many cases, the heat build-up will be enough for part of the
B&ES Hygiene group chairman Richard Norman, head of B&ES specialist groups Gareth Keller, and B&ES Ventilation Hygiene group secretary Paul
Downing at the launch for the new guidance
structure to catch fire, particu- larly if the ductwork is not insulated and is in close proxim- ity to wooden supports or other flammable building materials. The updated TR/19 provides clarity about when and to what standard grease extract systems should be cleaned, and provides a detailed explanation of the frequency of cleaning required based on the type of cooking and the hours of kitchen usage. This will also help building owners to meet their obligations under the Regulatory Reform (fire safety) Order 2005 and stay on the right side of fire officers who have the power to close down a building if they are not satisfied that the extract systems are safe.
Risk assessment
Every business which employs five or more people must carry out a fire risk assessment for the premises as a whole, and it is a legal requirement that the assessment includes both general and kitchen ventilation ductwork systems.
In addition to a regular cleaning regime, TR/19 also offers guidance on the fitting of efficient filtration systems such as the new generation of high capacity filters capable of removing up to 94.6 per cent of grease deposits.
By virtually doubling the
efficiency of a standard baffle filter the required cleaning frequencies – not to mention the associated costs – can be re- duced by up to 50 per cent as less grease gets into the ductwork in the first place. Methods for reducing fire risk at the design stage are also i - ncluded. For example, ends and turning vanes within ductwork
For more information on the B&ES and its members, contact Val O’Reilly on 020 7313 4907 or email
val.oreilly@b-es.org 16 | September 2014 | HVR Daily news update at
www.heatingandventilating.net
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