The question you might not have an answer to is what is actually legionella and what’s so dangerous about it? In this article, we will try to give you a full picture of what is legionella, how to prevent it with water temperature monitoring using a SimpleIndustry device, and more.

Legionella is a bacteria found in natural and artificial water systems that can lead to a serious legionnaire's disease, also known as legionellosis. 

More factual data? Let’s see:

• Around 60 types of infectious bacteria - an intracellular parasite that multiplies in the cells of the host


• The bacteria live and multiply in stale waters with a temperature of 20-45°C


• High-risk environments - older water distribution systems where the water doesn’t move around a lot, e.g. boilers, water containers, air-cons


• A bacterial infection causes the Legionnaires' disease - acute lung pneumonia that can last for weeks and is a high-risk disease for people 50+


• A most common source of outbreaks are cooling towers - bacteria spread through aerosol, human-to-human transmission doesn’t occur


The disease does not spread through human contact as, for instance, Covid-19 but only can be transmitted in the air via aerosol in places where the bacteria grow. When it comes to the growth, the bacteria multiply very quickly (every 4 hours) and normally it happens in a specific environment like old water filtering or distribution systems, in stale waters with a temperature of 20-45°C.

When it comes to the prevention of the bacteria, you can make sure that your water systems are outside of critical temperature range suitable for bacteria to develop. 

One of the solutions that the market is offering is the chemical disinfection of pipes. Although our IoT solution does not involve any intervention with water 

Our solution

With our IoT solution, we offer to monitor water temperature and pipes that the water runs within. The legionella prevention device is based on SimpleIndustry. 

What’s in it? 

• IP67 waterproof compliant


• Two external NTC sensors that measure temperature change without much delay - stuck to pipes


• Specific legionella mode implemented


• 10 years of battery life, 100.000 messages, replaceable batteries


• API 6

• Can be delivered with both removable and non-removable double-sided tape
s

• Can be mounted with screws as well


Inspired to try out testing? The prototypes of the SimpleIndustry device are available now, but the final devices will be ready in about 6 weeks for commercial usage.

Legionella mode described

• Regular uplink messages with data from both sensors


• Each sensor can be defined as Hot/increase or Cold/decrease  (can be both)


• One or two pipes can be monitored


• The mode is based around a Flow


• Hot Flow, Cold Flow - when the temperature increases/decreases by x °C


• During flow, device measures temperature in a different interval


• Number of flows and maximum & minimum temperatures recorded


Interested to learn more, contact us for additional information or pre-order? Let's get in touch here.

Watch the webinar recording dedicated to the Legionella monitoring solution, which was hosted by our support engineer Vojtech Plasil. Find slides here.