Residential Fire Spinklers protecting buildings and saving lives, from BCK
The use of residential 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.
Since the UK finally adopted the idea of using residential fire sprinklers seriously in the late 1990’s, it has been estimated that 25 lives have already been saved by the fire sprinkler systems. And despite popular belief and misconceptions, sprinklers are not difficult, unsightly or expensive to install in homes or dwellings of any size.
Our systems can be installed in New Builds, Retro-Fits, Apartments, Homes of Multiple Occupancy, Residential Care Homes.
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