A monitoring schedule is the list of routine checks that keeps a water system under control between risk assessments: temperatures, flushing, cleaning, inspections, and the record that each one happened. This tool builds that list from the features you describe, using the same logic as our Risk Assessment Builder and the framework in ACOP L8 and HSG274. It is an indicative starting point to structure your own regime. It is not a risk assessment, and it does not confirm that your system is safe or compliant.
Your monitoring schedule
These are the routine checks your system points to, at typical starting frequencies. Your own risk assessment sets the actual frequencies, and every check only counts if it is written down.
| Check | Typical frequency | Learn how |
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Email me this schedule + the free template
Your schedule above, plus the ACOP L8 risk assessment template it slots into — as one email you can file as the start of your written record.
This is an indicative starting point generated from the features you ticked. It is not a legionella risk assessment and does not confirm that your system is safe or compliant. Use it to structure a proper monitoring regime and to record your controls.
Free legionella risk assessment template
A structured Word document following the five-step approach in ACOP L8. Covers risk identification, written scheme, monitoring, and records. If it isn't written down, you can't evidence it.
Follows ACoP L8 and HSG274 Part 2. Free. No spam.
How the schedule is built
Every schedule starts with the checks no hot and cold water system can skip: monthly temperature checks at the sentinel outlets (the nearest and furthest points on each loop), an ongoing log book record, and a regular review of the assessment itself. Each feature you tick then adds the checks that feature calls for under HSG274 Part 2:
- Stored hot water adds monthly calorifier flow and return temperatures and an annual calorifier inspection, because the base of a calorifier can sit in the growth range even when the flow is hot.
- A cold water storage tank adds an annual inspection of the lid, screen, temperature and sediment, because stored cold water can warm up and collect debris.
- Showers and spray taps add quarterly cleaning, descaling and disinfection, because they turn water into the aerosol that reaches the lungs.
- TMVs add a service: inspect, descale, disinfect and fail-safe test. The generator sets this at six-monthly where occupants are vulnerable and annually otherwise, because TMVs deliberately hold water in the growth range to prevent scalding.
- Little-used outlets add weekly flushing until the temperature stabilises, because stagnant water is where legionella multiplies.
- Cooling towers and spa pools each add their own regime, because both aerosolise warm water and both carry duties well beyond a standard hot and cold water system.
The same logic runs in the Risk Assessment Builder, so the two tools always agree — the Builder simply asks the fuller set of questions first and also gives you an indicative risk rating.
A schedule only counts if it is written down
The schedule is the plan; the record is the evidence. Inspectors ask for the log book before anything else, and a schedule with no record behind it shows the plan was never followed. Record each check as you do it — date, outlet, reading, outcome, initials — and keep the records for at least five years under ACOP L8. Our working log book records entries as you go and prints a blank sheet for the plant room wall, and the written scheme of control guide shows how the schedule, the log book and the risk assessment fit together.
Important
This tool is general guidance, not advice on your specific premises. The right monitoring regime depends on the detail of the water system, how it is used, and who is exposed. Where there is a cooling tower, a spa pool, or vulnerable people, use a competent assessor, usually one working for a Legionella Control Association registered company. This site does not provide medical advice.