The cost of Legionellosis and technical ways forward

Abstract

Legionnaires’ disease in the UK could cost around £100M/annum (£1B/annum for the European Union) for healthcare and lost working days. The cost of monitoring Legionella in the Domestic Hot Water (DHW) systems of UK non-domestic building stock is around £140M/annum. Further, the methods of control employed depend on maintaining high water temperatures which result in high energy consumption. Research is currently being undertaken at Brunel University to assess the effectiveness of controlling Legionella in DHW systems with an electrochemical device which should allow hot water to be distributed at lower temperatures with estimated savings of 0.41MtCO2 per annum for the UK. It is also hoped that such device would reduce both the costs of monitoring and the risk of contracting the disease.