WATER MANAGEMENT
The future While IoT water monitoring may not become universally adopted overnight, trends indicate that use of the cloud is becoming mainstream. With safety, efficiency, and cost reduction all key priorities at the heart of the sector, the benefits of remote water monitoring indicate that the future of this sector really does lie in the clouds.
Strive to achieve value through technology engineering
“At Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust we are constantly striving to achieve value through technology engineering. This is through a combination of existing technologies, such as BMS systems alongside other technology such as LinkThru TMU. New technology can provide vital data at a fraction of the cost of existing hard- wired systems. We had a common problem which many Trusts
face, in providing assurance of water system compliance to HTM 04-10. We needed to complete daily ad weekly monitoring of incoming, stored and supplied water temperatures from our bulk storage tanks at point of use. The hospital’s’ 45 acre site comprises of an
estate which was built from between 1750 to 2018, so it’s technically challenging in terms of distribution network with 22 cold water storage tanks. We have a limited labour resource to
provide assurance of testing, so the LinkThru TMU was immediately of interest. It was demonstrated to us for sentinel monitoring, but we quickly realised that this could be a solution to resolve our water temperature issue. We soon discovered that we had storage and temperature issues and we are now in the process of adjusting our stored capacity to achieve HTM 04 compliance. The Trust IT department have been fully supportive of the scheme, as it is a stand-alone system using SigFox technology, so it does not sit on or influence the Trust IT systems. I would have no hesitation in recommending this solution and would encourage other engineering managers to adopt this innovative technology to aid compliance assurance.”
Paul Braddock, estates maintenance manager, Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust
There is an obligation to ensure corrective action
“The emerging technologies that permit remote sensing and monitoring of water temperatures and outlet usage undoubtedly provide significantly more data and superior information on water system safety compared to traditional approaches. The ability to check these important parameters in real-time provides a far more detailed picture of the way a water system is functioning and can identify issues such as infrequent use of outlets, to enable appropriate action to be taken, e.g. proactive flushing or outlet removal. Enhanced monitoring is likely to be of greatest value in high-risk areas, e.g. hospital augmented care wards, but can also be of great value during commissioning and balancing of new or altered water systems. In these (and other) situations, the ability to appraise water flow (and usage) through a system can identify potential
IFHE DIGEST 2023
problems that might otherwise go undetected if traditional methods are used. It has been said that knowledge is power, and that is certainly true; knowing what the problems are and the ability to locate the issue means that solutions can be implemented, and the situation resolved. However, organisations that utilise these new
technologies must do so in the knowledge that once problems are identified, there is an obligation to take proportionate actions to ensure corrective action. Having systems in place to understand and utilise effectively the additional information that these intelligent solutions provide, is only part of the jigsaw, providing the required resource for both the short and long term, is essential.”
Dr Paul McDermott FRSPH, FIHEEM 81
IFHE
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