Residential Sprinklers

10 facts you should know about fire sprinklers:

1. Fire sprinklers are by far the most efficient and effective safety devices known to man, having a better than 99% success rate in service world-wide.
   
   
2. Smoke alarms by themselves can only warn of fire and depend on someone calling the fire service. Fire sprinklers not only warn of fire they also act immediately to extinguish the fire – even if no one is present.
   
   
3. Over 50% of all fire casualties are either young or old, or physically incapacitated and cannot properly help themselves. Fire sprinklers, even if they do not put out the fire, will at the very least raise the alarm and greatly extend the time available for escape or rescue.
   
   
4. Fire in the home is responsible for over 75% of all fire-related deaths and injuries in the UK. Your chance of experiencing a serious fire in your lifetime is around one in five.
   
   
5. Residential fire sprinklers are not expensive, costing typically £1/sq.ft in new homes or about £1,500 for a three bedroom house. This is less than 2% of the cost of an average new house – or about the cost of carpeting - but they are designed to last for 50 years. Even so, can you put a value on a life?
   
   
6. Fire sprinklers are very reliable. Records show that the chance of accidental operation in service is 1:16,000,000 (one in sixteen million). Less than your chance of winning the lottery!
   
   
7. Houses which suffer major fires are seldom able to be lived in afterwards and are often demolished. In contrast, rooms protected by residential sprinklers can often be back in use within a few hours, and the rest of the house is usually unaffected.
   
   
8. Each sprinkler is individually triggered directly by the heat of the fire, and the system will have gained control of the fire long before the fire service is even notified. Only the sprinkler directly affected by the fire goes off (NOT all of them), typically using only 10gal/min of water to control the fire.
   
   
9. Sprinklers use very much less water than the fire service. Because the sprinkler tackles the fire immediately, it has a much smaller fire to deal with than the one the fire and rescue service meets when it arrives. A fire sprinkler uses between 1/25^th and 1/100^th of the water used by each fire hose – so in the event of a fire, sprinklers will minimise water damage.
   
   
10. Modern residential sprinklers are small, neat and unobtrusive and visitors are seldom able to spot them – indeed concealed versions are now available. They all come in a variety of finishes and colours and can be made to match any décor.