WASHROOM TOUCHLESS APPROACH
Infrared (IR) technology affects all of our lives on a daily basis when we pick up a TV remote control unit or turn on a heater. In more specialist applications, IR is at the core of thermal imaging and night vision cameras for the military and police; it’s found in hospitals across the UK and even plays a role in art conservation.
When it comes to specifying, refurbishing and designing commercial washrooms, occupancy-sensing product developments incorporating IR can deliver an added value solution that undoubtedly increases hygiene, but can also save water resources and improve the end-user experience. These three-pronged benefits have never been more important than in this COVID-19 world and organisations are increasingly reaching for no-touch solutions to make washrooms safer now and in the future.
Total washroom control With our workplaces and leisure facilities now looking like very different places compared with before March this year, washrooms especially are areas of priority. If you’re specifying and designing larger commercial washrooms, innovative total washroom control systems such as Sensazone are available. An effective way to conserve both water and energy, occupancy is monitored by IR sensors, so when someone enters the washroom, all services controlled by Sensazone can be activated, including hot and cold-water supplies, lighting and ventilation extractor fans.
Washbasin taps are firmly under the spotlight now that focus is being placed on regular hand washing to minimise the spread of the COVID-19 virus via cross-contamination. IR can play a role in controlling individual elements within a washroom, like the basin taps themselves, helping to reduce water and energy use and eliminate potential for taps to be left running due to either accidental misuse or malicious intent. For obvious reasons, we’re also seeing significant demand for no-touch deck-mounted IR taps providing hygienic, hands- free operation, which are typically supplied with either 3.5 or 5 litres per minute flow rate nozzle options.
Consigning the toilet
flush handle to history Over recent years, IR has started to consign the traditional toilet flush handles to history in commercial and even domestic settings, thanks to its ability to offer hygienic, water- saving solutions. A range of infrared
60 | TOMORROW’S FM
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Paul Stenning, National Sales Manager at Cistermiser and Keraflo, reviews the latest infrared no-touch bathroom products and demonstrates their unique potential amidst the pandemic.
sensor-activated WC flushing valves for both new and retrofit washroom projects can be specified.
With options for both mains-fed (cistern-free) and also cistern-fed systems, solutions are programmable in a variety of ways, giving full control over the volume of water used, and whether the toilet flush is activated by ‘touchless’ operation, with a wave of the hand, or ‘occupancy sensing’, simply by standing up and walking away. The precise positioning of IR sensors should be carefully considered during installation, to optimise Wave or Walkaway no-touch toilet activation.
For larger commercial washrooms, especially those with high traffic that require a fast turnaround, ‘direct’ toilet flushing systems remove the need for a traditional WC cistern, taking water feed direct from the mains supply and allowing for additional flushes without any inconvenient delay waiting for a cistern to refill.
With ‘touchless’ or ‘occupancy sensing’ activation options, this is where IR really comes into its own. IR driven solutions will no doubt continue to shape the washrooms of the future, and with clever and generally unobtrusive product design, will deliver more efficient water usage with lower energy consumption, minimise health risks and most importantly, be truly fit for purpose.
Giving building users and owners
peace of mind Offering practical on-board advantages, intelligent IR-activated washroom control systems or single-point solutions such as no-touch washbasin taps and toilet flushing valves are easy to operate, minimise water wastage and help to give peace of mind in a world fraught with hygiene concerns.
www.cistermiser.co.uk
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