Transcript Residential Fire Sprinklers and Water Conservation

Kathleen Almand- Executive Director
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Fire sprinklers reduce fire death risk
All model safety and building codes require
fire sprinklers in all new homes
Community based barriers
Additional benefits of sprinklers - water
conservation
Incentives to increase use of fire sprinkler
systems
Water usage and water meter performance
during residential sprinkler system actuation
in residences and to provide guidance
information on this topic in a format suitable
for water utilities and local jurisdictions
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Study of water consumption during fire
events and resulting impacts on water
infrastructure demand:
1. Estimation of water used per home fire by
responding fire services
2. Calculations of the expected water discharged by fire
sprinklers per home fire
3. Estimation of the reduced water infrastructure
demand when fire sprinklers are present in all homes
within a community
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Water used by fire service:
- Average of 3,524 gallons per fire
- An approximate 10-times increase when
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Fire extended beyond the room of origin
Increase of fire involvement from visible flame and
smoke to fully-involved fire
Related studies and results:
 Scottsdale, AZ –Automatic Sprinklers: A 15Year Study
-Average 2,935 gallons per fire used by fire services
-Sprinkler discharged up to 341 gallons per fire
Available here: http://www.homefiresprinkler.org/FS/FSMunicipalRports.html
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FM Global – Environmental Impact of
Automatic Fire Sprinklers
-Reduction in water usage by fire sprinkler system could be
as much as 91% compared to manual suppression
-Approximately 10 times increase - similar to this study
Available here:
http://www.fmglobal.com/page.aspx?id=04010300
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Calculations of the expected water
discharged by fire sprinklers per home fire:
- hydraulic calculations on fire sprinkler
designs for typical one- and two-family
homes
- calculations assumed a one- or twosprinkler operation of highest water flow and
greatest system pressure demand
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Calculations based on most probable scenario
based on actual sprinkler design plans:
- single sprinkler operation
- average system discharge 28 gpm
- exceeds required minimum flow of 18 gpm
- system discharge up to 280 gallons per fire
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Estimation of the reduced water infrastructure
demand when fire sprinklers are present in all
homes within a community:
- projected infrastructure demand is reduced
at least 47%
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Evaluation of the performance of water
meters when used to supply residential fire
sprinkler systems
Series of experiments on commercial
residential water meters under a range of
flow conditions to investigate:
- pressure loss profiles
- metering accuracy
- functional integrity
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Failure of water meter components
- Observation of water meter
- Failure based on reduction in flow rate
and/or pressure
- 20 minute test per flow condition
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No water meters failed resulting in flow
obstruction during any tests
Post test visual inspections indicated no signs
of physical water damage to any meter
All tested residential water meters are
capable of handling the minimum fire
sprinkler flows required by NFPA 13D
All tested meters are capable of handling the
expected 28 pgm for single sprinkler
operation without failure and with metering
accuracy
Why
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study incentives?
identify their value
understand the impact of these values
increase the use of fire sprinklers
Important factors:
 Time specific
 Single issue
 Future considerations
Research objectives:
 Identify incentives/types
 Characterize incentives
 Estimate the value of incentives
Types of incentives:
 Financial trade-offs
- Developer
- Builders
- Homeowners
 On-site design flexibility
 Off-site design flexibility
 Indirectvalue
Estimated value of incentives:
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Homeowner-Oriented Incentives $145
Builder-Oriented Incentives $1,949
Developer-Oriented Incentives $1,271
Typical incentives to home builders offset 33%
of system cost
Future research:
 Identify the most influential types of
incentives
 Identify the most impactful stakeholder
group to target with incentives.
Thank you!
Questions?
Maria Figueroa – Regional Director
Fire Prevention Field Office
[email protected]
Jonathan Hart – Assoc. Engineer
National Fire Protection Association
[email protected]