The majority of occupied buildings in the UK are
served by hot water storage and distribution systems. In domestic
premises, common law prevails. While legal action would be unusual
in the domestic context, a householder who fails to ensure that
family members and guests can have access to facilities that
are safe according to general construction standards would be
in breach of his duty of care under the law of negligence.
The use of properly installed and maintained systems minimises
the risk of both injury and any consequent legal concerns.
Where a building is being used by people other
than the owner of the building (third parties), the owner (or
manager) of the building has a duty of care to ensure that the
others can use the building and its facilities safely.
The role of the Building Services professional is important
in ensuring that hot water and storage systems are designed,
installed, serviced and maintained so that risks from scalding
or bacterial infection are reduced to an absolute minimum.
Despite this, every year in the UK a significant number of
building occupants are injured or die because of these risks.
All these injuries are wholly preventable by the installation
and use of appropriate safety products.
A Code of Practice document has been prepared
by the members of the Thermostatic Mixing Valve Manufacturers
Association (TMVA) for the use by building managers, consulting
engineers and installers and other interested parties. It
uses information from a wide range of reference publications
and is accurate to the best knowledge of the TMVA. The document
is intended to give clear guidance but does not supersede
any current legislation or standards.
The guidance given in the document is relevant for all non-domestic
installations, including:-
Healthcare Premises
Care homes
Hotels
Leisure Facilities
The document is primarily concerned with non-domestic
installations although the guidance given is equally appropriate
in domestic situations. Full
details from the TMVA web site
