Kitchen extract cleaning – reasons to be compliant
We asked Gary Nicholls, our Managing Director, a co-author of TR19® Grease and a pioneer of the specialist ductwork cleaning industry, to explain why compliance is so important.
TR19® Grease, issued by the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA), is now the specification with which kitchen extract ductwork must comply, by means of regular specialist cleaning. There are several good reasons for compliance with TR19® Grease. Perhaps the most pressing reason is that of fire safety, but hygiene and energy consumption are also important considerations.
Hygiene
Withour regular cleaning, grease deposits inevitably accumulate on the inside surfaces of kitchen extract ductwork. Naturally, you’d want to clean every part of the kitchen that you can see, and of course it’s important, for hygiene reasons, to clean those that you don’t. Even the healthiest menus involve cooking food which gives rise to airborne fat, oil and grease particles which, as the air stream cools, create greasy deposits. These grease deposits can attract insects such as cockroaches, and dirt particles can also adhere to them. Thoroughly cleaning the inside surfaces of the ductwork is therefore just as important as cleaning your fridges, worktops and cookers.
Fire hazard
It is very well documented that these greasy deposits in ductwork represent a major fire hazard. The grease would provide fuel for a fire, while the ductwork itself would provide a chimney through which the fire could travel. All too often, fire, once established within the ductwork, spreads either within the building or to neighbouring properties, including other businesses and residences. We have seen entire buildings destroyed when this happens.
Grease deposits don’t have to be particularly thick to form a fire hazard, which is why you must remove them regularly. TR19® Grease stipulates that the grease layer must be controlled to within an average of 200 microns across the entire surface of the kitchen extraction system. This is about half the thickness of the average business card. A barely visible thin film of grease can be enough to pose a risk to your staff, customers and any adjoining residents. How long the layer takes to reach this critical thickness will depend on the system’s use, which is why TR19® Grease contains helpful tables to help you determine how frequently your system should be cleaned.
Energy costs
Higher energy prices should now also serve as a serious prompt to ensuring compliance. Grease will accumulate on all the metal surfaces of the kitchen extract system’s interior, including the hood, canopy, filters, canopy plenum, the ductwork and the fan. The fan, of course, requires electricity to run. Grease deposits undoubtedly slow up the fan and cause it to consume more energy than a clean fan.
A compliant extract system is cheaper and more efficient to run than a non-compliant one. Cleaning the system in compliance with TR19® Grease should already be a predicted fixed cost in a PPM schedule, so with energy consumption a major cost consideration, now is not the time to skimp on compliance.
The risk of non-compliance
Failing to comply with TR19® Grease can have disastrous consequences. Firstly, should you have a fire which causes considerable damage, you will wish to claim on the insurance. However, increasingly, insurance providers will not pay out on a policy if it can be demonstrated that the kitchen extract ductwork was not compliant – or if you cannot provide evidence of compliance.
Worse could be in store, especially if a serious injury or fatality has occurred. The Responsible Person, appointed in accordance with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, can be prosecuted for negligence and, if convicted, may face a custodial sentence.
Demonstrating compliance
Clearly, there is a need for robust evidence that you have done all that you can to comply with TR19® Grease. The first step should be to appoint a member of BESA’s Vent Hygiene Register (VHR) as your ductwork cleaning provider. VHR members must provide fully qualified, competent technicians who are trained to BESA GHT level.
Critically, a VHR member will be able to provide post-clean certification through BESCA, the certification arm of the BESA. This provides essential evidence of compliance, which you can use to demonstrate to insurers or investigating authorities that you have not been negligent. This can protect not only the facilities manager, but also the owner and the manager of the property.
It can also provide peace of mind.
