Why residential sprinklers

Chances are you've looked up in a school, store, or office and noticed a sprinkler head in the ceiling. These tiny, but powerful devices help save lives and prevent fire damage from growing exponentially in dollar value. In homes, there are over three thousand fire-related deaths per year --deaths that might be preventable with a residential sprinkler system.

Unfortunately, these life-saving systems are not yet mandated by code to be in homes across the United States. While not mandatory, they play an essential role in fire safety, and we want you informed to make the best decision. That's why we're providing the needed background on these systems. If you've ever watched a show or movie where a sprinkler system has gone off -- think Hocus Pocus when max lifts the lighter -- it brings to mind a few concerns that stop people from buying homes with them or installing them in their current home.

Many people fear that if one is triggered, the entire system will go off, flooding the home and leading to thousands of dollars in additional damage. Another common fear is that they'll misfire and go off for no reason at all. What you probably don't know is that these are not accurate depictions or issues with sprinkler systems. While a system misfire could occur, it's a one in sixteen million chance.

However, the odds of having a home fire are just one in three thousand. We don't know about you, but those odds seem worth it. While movies do showcase an entire building turning on sprinklers at once, that is not the case. The sprinkler system goes off unit-by-unit, only turning on in the rooms that trigger them specifically.

The last common reason people do not want sprinkler systems is financial damage. Sprinklers pump fifteen to twenty gallons per minute to stop the fire from spreading. There are two types of sprinkler systems that you can have installed in your home.

Both bring positive and negative aspects with them as well as the plus of protecting your home and family before a fire department can arrive on the scene. Stand-alone systems don't use the home's water supply. For assistance with the design of residential fire systems, please reference the Reliable Residential Design Guide. For more information regarding the proper handling, storage, and installation of Reliable fire sprinklers, please see Caution Sheet Do you have a technical product question?

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However, there have been 13 deaths in homes without sprinklers. Some homeowners worry that sprinklers will activate accidentally, for no reason, or that all sprinklers will activate for a small, localized fire. However, automatic fire sprinklers are individually heat-activated and tied into a network of pipes with water under pressure. Only those sprinklers in the immediate area of the fire will operate, optimizing the use of the limited water they distribute.

Another contention about sprinkler systems is that they will detract from the aesthetics of the home. However, newer systems feature sprinklers, or pendents, can be concealed. An advantage of sprinkler systems besides the obvious advantages of saving lives and property, some insurance companies offer discounts to homeowners with fire sprinkler systems installed.

Savings vary by company, so homeowners need to shop around. The cost of installing a system in a new construction is estimated to be 1 to 1. Retrofitting a system in an existing house can be about 50 percent higher. In addition, a few municipalities have policies that charge fees, generally called tap fees, for the initial connection of the water sprinkler system connection fees and for maintaining the availability of water standby charge.

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