Cooling Tower Water Testing 冷卻水塔水測試
Cooling tower is a heat removal device used to eliminate waste heat of air released to atmosphere. This process allows airborne contaminants, organic matters and particles to become deposited into the cooling water. This, combined with the contaminants in the feed water, creates an environment for microorganism growth, solid deposits and scaling.
Improper treated cooling tower water could be an amplifier of biological hazardous agent. The warm and moist environment of a cooling tower favors the growth of Legionella bacteria
which causes the outbreak of the deathly Legionnaires' disease. Thus, cooling tower water quality must be monitored in a regular basis to prevent spreading of diseases to users.
In Hong Kong, Code of Practice for Water-cooled Air Conditioning Systems, published by the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD), HKSAR Government, recommends to test for legionella and heterotrophic colony count at least every three months and every one month, respectively. Monitoring of other parameters is recommended to provide a full picture on the water quality. Indicative fresh water quality criteria are provided as table below.
冷卻水塔是一個散熱裝置，用於消除釋放到大氣中的廢熱空氣。冷卻過程會讓空氣中的污染物，有機物和塵粒跌進冷卻水中，加上水中的污染物，漸漸形成固體沈積物。此沈積物通常是細菌的溫藏。
由於水塔內的環境溫暖潮濕，不妥善處理水塔水會有利於退伍軍人病菌滋長。由於退伍軍人病可引致死亡，一旦病菌爆發及擴散，對人類健康有嚴重的威脅。因此，定期測試水塔水的水質有助防止病菌的傳播。
在香港，機電工程署（EMSD）發佈的《水冷式空調系統實務守則》建議每三個月檢測一次退伍軍人菌，每一個月檢測一次異養菌群總數。此外，建議監測其他參數，以全面了解水質狀況。下表提供了參考性的淡水水質標準。
To ensure the accuracy of the test results, testing should be carried out by the laboratories accredited by the Hong Kong Laboratory Accreditation Scheme (HOKLAS). Enviro Labs Ltd. (ELL) is registered as a HOKLAS accredited laboratory (HOKLAS 128) in Environmental Testing and our company holds HOKLAS accreditation for ALL the tests listed as above. For details, please refer to our scope of accreditation published by HKAS.
為了確保測試結果的精準性，水質測試應由HOKLAS認可的實驗室進行。環境化驗有限公司為HOKLAS認可的實驗室（編號128），而上文提及的測試均已獲得HOKLAS之認可。詳情請參閱由香港認可處 (HKAS) 公佈的我們的認可範圍。