Despite the statistics, home fire sprinklers have yet to become code-mandated in new-home construction, and few homeowners who have the option choose to include this life-saving investment in their home. By Benjamin Hardy Eighty percent of fire deaths occur in residences, with over 3,000 people dying per year in U.S. house fires. Despite the statistics, home fire sprinklers have yet to become code-mandated in new-home construction, and few homeowners who have the option choose to include this life-saving investment in their home. The Case for Home Sprinklers Common misconceptions about sprinkler systems (also called residential fire-protection systems and residential fire-suppression systems) prevent people from including one in their home. The fear of a misfiring sprinkler head and the belief that a room fire activates the entire system are two such common misconceptions. “Hollywood movies show sprinklers going off everywhere,” says Roy Marshall, executive director of the Residential Fire Safety Institute (RFSI). “This is what people think of, and it’s unfortunate.” In truth, occurrences of misfiring sprinkler heads are extremely rare (one manufacturer claims the chances to be 1 in 16 million), and systems are designed so only the sprinkler heads directly affected by the heat of a fire become activated, not the whole system. A residential sprinkler system will save a homeowner money in the event of a fire. When activated, a sprinkler head will spray 15 to 20 gallons per minute. “Eighty to ninety percent of fires are put out with one sprinkler head,” Marshall says. Water damage from fire suppressed by a home sprinkler system incurs an average of $2,200 in costs; water damage from a fire suppressed by a fire department adds up to an average of $45,000. “The sprinkler head will put out the fire before it grows,” says Marshall, “while the fire department may take 10 to 20 minutes to get there, and when they do they are dumping 250 gallons per minute and chopping holes in the roof to put out the fire.” Residential sprinkler systems will include a flow alarm that sounds an alert when the system has been activated. An alarm bell installed on the outside of the house can alert neighbors to system activation if the homeowners are not present. Some systems can be designed to alert the local fire department in the case of activation, and others can tie into a home’s security system. The cost of a home-sprinkler system will depend on a number of factors. A new-home, stand-alone installation can run anywhere from $1.00 to $1.25 per square foot, while a retrofit could cost $5 to $6 per square foot. The RFSI has its own calculation, estimating the cost of a system to be about “1 to 1.5 percent of the cost of the home,” says Marshall. Additionally, insurance companies can offer discounts to homes with fire-suppression systems. These discounts can range from 5 to 15 percent.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 16:04:32 +0000