BSRIA announces an update to its seminal water treatment guide, Water Treatment for Closed Heating and Cooling Systems (BG 50/2021)
Water treatment is essential in closed heating and cooling systems. Without it, there is far greater risk of biological fouling (biofouling), corrosion and scale. These problems can lead to poor performance, system failures and costly remedial works.
BSRIA published it’s first water treatment guide in 1993. In 2013, the guide was renamed to ‘BG 50/2013 Water Treatment for Closed Heating and Cooling Systems’, which included a major overhaul of the original guide.
Although this guide became widely used in the industry, it became clear that it needed an update to bring it in line with current technology and practices and updated standards and guidance.
It is consistent with Pre-Commission Cleaning of Pipework Systems (BG 29/2021), which was published in February 2021.
The technical content of the publication was written by Dr. Pamela Simpson, with the help of a steering group, including representatives from:
- The British Chemicals Association (BCA)
- The Closed Systems Control Association (CSCA)
- The Industrial and Commercial Heating Equipment Association (ICOM)
- The Institute of Corrosion (ICorr)
- The Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management (IWFM)
- The Water Management Society (WMSoc)
What does BG 50/2021 cover?
Chemical water treatment is the dominant water treatment technique for closed heating and cooling systems in the UK. Therefore, this technique is covered in depth in the guide. Other techniques are also available and a number of these are covered in the guide.
This includes:
- Pre-treatment of fill water.
- Removal of dissolved gases.
- pH management.
- Solids removal and filtration.
- Galvanic anode cathodic protection / electrochemistry.
- Bacteria and biofouling inhibition by biocides.
Expanded guidance has been provided on the roles and responsibilities of those typically involved with water treatment in closed systems: planners of water treatment programmes, maintenance water treatment specialists, day-to-day system operators, building owner/operators and remedial cleaning specialists.
The suggested water quality analyses and guidelines have been updated, including the addition of corrosion rates.
Additional guidance has been provided on corrosion monitoring and on-site testing, including the use of test kits.
BG 50/2021 is available from the BSRIA Bookshop, with free downloads for BSRIA members.
