Domestic Fire sprinklers protecting buildings and saving lives, from BCK
The use of domestic fire sprinklers has proven to reduce fire deaths, US experience shows that 98% of all fires in fire sprinkler equipped buildings are extinguished with only one sprinkler head operating. The same data suggests there is a 57% reduction in the likelihood of death for those in the room of origin.
No one in the UK has ever died as a result of a fire in a building with a working sprinkler system; stats suggest with a sprinkler system installed, you have a 97% chance of surviving a fire. If you have ever had the misfortune of being in a domestic fire you will appreciate how effective and worthy a quality fire sprinkler system is.
How Sprinklers Work
- Fire Sprinkler Heads are simple devices that are individually operated directly by the heat from the Fire - When a fire starts a plume of hot gases rise to the ceiling. If a sprinkler is present, a glass bulb or solder link gets hot at a specific temperature (typically 74°c) breaks releasing a cap and allowing water to flow onto a specially designed diffuser.
- The diffuser breaks up the water flow into carefully controlled droplets, which penetrates the fire plume and cools the burning material below its ignition point, thus putting out the Fire.
- Only Sprinkler/s directly over the fire are operated
- The Sprinklers are connected to pipe work, usually filled with water which is supplied either from the water mains or from a storage tank via a pump.
- When a Sprinkler operates the flow of water in the pipe work, it operates a flow switch which in turn operates an alarm system.
The Cost
- An Average 3 bedroom new build house will cost approximately £2500
- Sprinklers Save Money - Losses from fires in buildings with sprinklers are estimated to be only one tenth of those in unprotected buildings
- Some insurance companies can offer discounts for buildings that are protected by Sprinklers
Fire Sprinkler Systems are installed using the following:
- Modern Residential Sprinkler Heads (RFC 49) with Cover Plates to hide the Pendant.
- CPVC Pipe which is an engineered thermoplastic piping material that has been used successfully for many years in a wide range of demanding applications, including Fire Sprinkler Systems.
- Sprinkler Alarm Control Panel is used to link the system to the sounders, This is achieved by hardwiring a flow switch to the control panel, as the water flows it sends a signal to the control panel indicating a fire is in progress, this then activates the sounder circuits.
- Riser Unit connects the water supply to the Sprinkler system, it also holds the Flow Switch which activates the Alarm