We already know that conventional fire sprinklers are vital safety and protection tools any establishment must have. While these devices help save lives and property, water may indiscriminately soak essential resources, materials, and items – leading to thousands of dollars’ worth of damage. This is why smart sprinkler systems have been developed.
Nowadays, when almost everything is powered by smart technology, it’s no wonder this technology also upgrades our fire protection systems and devices.
Smart sprinkler systems are an undeniable asset to any property owners – both commercial and residential. In today’s post, we’ll learn more about them, what their features are, and how to choose one for your property.
Fire Protection Innovation
Smart sprinkler systems utilize multiple sensors, as well as programmable functions, to extinguish fires. This extinguishing capacity is also far quicker than conventional sprinkler systems. There is less water usage, allowing property owners to make use of this fire safety system without the risk of damaging their valuables and other essential items.
By tradition, sprinklers are used for insurance savings and property protection. Earlier, installing fire sprinkler systems was only for commercial and other industrial applications.
However, because of the surge of fire-related incidents in residential properties, the government has boosted the use of fire sprinkler systems for fire defense and protection. Also, the government has also mandated important regulations and guidelines on building and fire safety codes – specifically with the installation of fire sprinkler systems.
However, since fire suppression and sprinkler systems primarily use massive quantities of water to combat the fire, it can also cause significant water damage while suppressing fire. This impediment is often highlighted when there may be instances of false alarms or malfunctions.
With the advent of smart sprinkler systems and smart fire suppression systems emerging in the market, we can now locate the origin point of the fire within the premises and extinguish the flames with flame suppressants – rather than water. This feature reduces water wastage, is one of the earth’s most essential resources.
Most jurisdictions across the country order fire sprinkler systems installation for different classifications of buildings and establishments.
However, indiscriminate use of soaking of water to drench fire may damage our house or workplace – especially the areas where there are no immediate threat or risk of fire.
How Effective Are Smart Sprinkler Systems?
Programmable settings and features, as well as multiple sensors, make up smart sprinkler systems. FM Global, a global commercial property insurance company, conducted the reliability and effectiveness of smart sprinklers.
In the study, they put the system design, evaluation, and function of the smart sprinklers to test. They also conducted wide-scale fire testing scenarios in rack storage. Consequently, they also investigated the cost-effectiveness and reliability of this type of fire protection technology. The report was entitled “Evaluation of the Availability of the Smart Sprinkler System.”
Two Sprinkler Scenarios
In the research, two sprinkler scenarios were conducted: scenario 1) a fire takes place in a facility with typical fire risks and conventional fire sprinklers; scenario 2) the fire risks are outside the recommended scope of FM Global’s protection recommendations, and smart sprinkler systems are installed.
Scenario 2 was a storage facility with stacks of paper rolls that go over 40 feet. Scenario 1 was a similar storage facility with conventional materials.
The Findings
The traditional speakers didn’t get activated until the flames reached 15 feet above the floor. On the other hand, the smart sprinklers detected the fire when the flames reached 13 feet. And as you know, critical details like that are important when extinguishing fires.
The sooner your sprinkler system detects a fire, the faster it can dispense the needed amount of water to extinguish the flames.
Best Features
Some of the best features of smart sprinklers are multiple sensors, central control, remote or mobile accessibility, and individual control of sprinkler heads.
Consider Smart Sprinklers
Smart sprinklers may not be on the top of the list when it comes to smart tech. However, it’s a definite upgrade to the conventional fire sprinkler systems.
If you need more information about this piece of fire protection and smart technology combined into one, please reach out to us. Our fire protection specialists can help guide you through choosing the best fire protection systems for your property.