3 Reasons Why Adding A Fire Sprinkler System To Your Home Is A Good Idea
Home fire sprinklers are becoming more common in newly constructed houses. They're capable of extinguishing house fires quickly, limiting their spread. This helps keep the occupants of a building safer, and it also reduces property damage.
However, they're not limited to new construction. You can also upgrade existing homes with fire sprinklers. They draw water from the plumbing system that the home already uses, so only a few pipes and sprinkler heads need to be added. Below, you'll find three reasons why adding fire sprinklers to your home is a great idea.
1. Sprinklers Can Extinguish Fires Before the Fire Department Arrives
Unless you have a fire sprinkler system installed in your home, you'll need to wait until the fire department arrives before a house fire can be extinguished. Depending on how far you live from the nearest fire station, it may take quite a while before fire crews arrive. Until they get to your home, your house fire will continue to spread.
House fires spread quickly, since homes often lack the fire protection features found in commercial buildings, like fire-resistant building materials or fire doors. Homes also tend to contain excellent fuel sources for fires, such as mattresses made out of synthetic materials. These combust very quickly, increasing the rate at which a fire can spread. It doesn't take long for a house fire to quickly blaze out of control.
With a home sprinkler system, fires can typically be stopped in the room that they originate in. Fire sprinklers contain a plug that breaks when it's exposed to high temperatures. Once that happens, the valve above the fire sprinkler opens and allows water from the home's plumbing system to rush into the room.
The plugs used in home fire sprinklers are designed to react much more quickly than the ones used in commercial or industrial fire sprinklers, so the plug will activate shortly after a fire begins in a room. Most fires will be extinguished before they have a chance to spread throughout the home, which reduces fire damage and keeps your family safe.
2. Sprinklers Limit the Water Damage After the Fire
People often are unaware that fires need to be extinguished with extremely large amounts of water. After a house fire, homeowners will have extensive water damage to contend with as well. The water damage adds to the cleanup and repair costs after the fire.
However, a home fire sprinkler system uses much less water compared to a fire crew. The water damage will be contained to a single room, since only the fire sprinkler directly above the fire will activate. Fire crews typically spray water through high-pressure hoses from the outside of your home, which can cause water damage to areas of your home that weren't even involved in the fire. Additionally, extinguishing a fire early and preventing its spread will limit the amount of water needed to fully extinguish the fire.
3. Sprinklers Have Almost No Maintenance Requirements
The only maintenance you need to perform on a home fire sprinkler system is to check its flow with a flow test. You need to do this twice a year, and the process is simple. In order to perform a flow test, you engage the main drain in your fire sprinkler system and wait for the alarm to sound. Opening the main drain causes water to flow through the system as if one of its sprinklers activated, which allows you to make sure all of the plumbing in the system still works. If the alarm sounds, then the test is successful.
Overall, adding a home fire sprinkler system is a great way to protect your family and limit the damage caused by any fires that start in your home. While many homeowners add fire sprinklers as part of a more extensive renovation project, you can retrofit your home with fire sprinklers at any time. If you want to protect your home with fire sprinklers, call a home fire protection service in your area and ask how much it will cost to have them installed in your home.
