When it comes to ensuring water supplies are free from harmful micro-organisms, such as legionella, chlorination is a vital process.

The method consists of disinfecting domestic water systems, in order to be certain the water stored by an organisation, such as a school, hospital or business, has not become contaminated.

When to carry out water chlorination

There are a number of occasions when chlorination of a water supply, a process which was first pioneered in the late nineteenth century, should be carried out. The most obvious of these is if contamination is either suspected or has already been detected. If, for example, a case of Legionnaire’s Disease is linked to a system, full chlorination of the source would need to be undertaken immediately, as a legal requirement of the premise owner or facility manager.

However, chlorination is also required as a precautionary measure when new installations, such as water tanks, are fitted, or where major extensions or alterations to a water system have been carried out. If your organisation, for example, has had to extend pipework as part of a new building, chlorination treatment should be carried out to ensure the water quality has not been compromised during the work.

Finally, treatment of this kind should also be carried out if a system has not been in regular use. Water that has remained largely stagnant provides the ideal environment for bacteria and other micro-organisms to multiply. We regularly carry out water chlorination at new business premises, such as retail units, which have previously been unoccupied, in order to eliminate the possibility of any contamination.

A chlorination process and what it achieves

The reason behind a chlorination of a domestic water system is to achieve a sterile condition of water within the pipework, the reason for doing such works could be due to an untoward microbiological reading, a stagnated water system or a newly installed domestic water system.

Sodium hypochlorite (Chlorine) is either injected into the system via an injection point on the mains cold water system or a cold water tank is dosed. Once the system has been treated the sodium hypochlorite is then pulled through to all corresponding hot and cold outlets within the system. Once the engineer is happy that each of the outlets has been treated the system is then shut down.

During the 60 minute kill time the engineer will check the chlorine levels to ensure a 50ppm dosage is still present. Once the 60 min kill time is over the engineer will then flush the treated water system with fresh incoming mains water testing each of the outlets to ensure the system clear of sodium hypochlorite.

This process will achieve a sterile domestic water system.

For more information on Brodex’s chlorination services visit our page here, or contact our team of water treatment experts.