ENERGY LOUISE WEBB – DIRECTOR; DAVID LIVINGSTONE – MANAGING DIRECTOR, DRLC LTD, UK


De-steaming the NHS Estate: a needless error


Louise Webb, director at DRLC Ltd, discusses the NHS strategy to be the world’s first net zero health service – part of which is actively de-steaming its estate, which managing director David Livingstone believes is a mistake.


NHS estates across England are removing their steam raising plant and replacing it with modern carbon saving equipment. This push to remove high pressure steam services is intended to reduce carbon emissions as the steam is most often produced using coal, oil, or gas fired boilers, which produce greenhouse gases. Steam power was a known quantity


in the 1st Century BCE. It started to gain traction when, in 1606, Jeronimo de Avanz y Beaumont of Spain designed and made a successful application for a patent for a steam powered water pump. Initial uses of the pump were to remove water from the flooded mines in Guadalcanal, Spain. The steam engine was used widely


to pump water out of mines until the inventor Thomas Newcomen, an ironmonger from Dartmouth in Devon, put together a machine called the ‘atmospheric engine’ in 1712 which was the first efficient coal powered steam engine. Newcomen’s experiment put together the concept of a vacuum with the use of pressure, a way of generating steam and the use of a mechanical piston and cylinder.


Steam today Fast forward to the present day. Many hospital buildings used by the NHS in England were built 30 years ago or more. These buildings were designed to be heated using coal boilers initially and then oil and gas laterally. This was seen as a logical and necessary part of a hospital design. The oil crisis in the 1970’s was caused by two military excursions in the Middle East. These were the Yom- Kippur War in 1973 and the Iranian Revolution of 1979. These historical events resulted in a disruption to the delivery of oil and a huge increase in the price of oil. Hospitals in the UK switched away from oil and used coal and gas to keep the steam flowing. Global warming and the reduction of


the ozone layer started to become part of the public consciousness in 1988. The


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Louise Webb


Louise is a director of DRLC Ltd, with her partner of over 40 years David Livingstone. DRLC work with healthcare providers supplying authorising engineers in many areas including pressure systems, water Safety and medical Gases.


Louise started her career as a medical student at Edinburgh University. She then went on to gain a MSc in Computer Studies. As a senior project manager at BT she project- managed the first Google servers to be installed in the UK.


She believes in lifelong learning and is currently nearing the end of a MSc in Building Services Engineering at Heriot Watt University.


David Livingstone


David Livingstone is a chartered engineer and managing director of DRLC Ltd consulting engineers. DRLC Ltd work mainly with NHS Trusts supplying technical expertise and authorising engineers in the areas of pressure systems, ventilation, water safety, medical gases and fire safety.


David started his engineering career as an apprentice marine engineer in the merchant navy. He has worked in the public sector in the UK for over 30 years before he set up DRLC Ltd, an


engineering consultancy which now supplies authorising engineers to NHS hospitals throughout England.


IFHE DIGEST 2024


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