| ▲ | ErroneousBosh 4 days ago |
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| ▲ | onetwentythree 4 days ago | parent | next [-] |
| To provide more information than the others who responded: typical sprinkler systems are not automatically activated in response to a fire alarm. Each sprinkler head has a small glass vial filled with a liquid, calibrated to break at a certain elevated temperature (e.g 160 or 180 F). The flow of water starts when the glass breaks. So there has to be a significant fire near the sprinkler before it activates. One weakness is that the glass vial is fragile. In some hotels you’ll see signs reminding guests not to hang clothes from the sprinkler head, as a clothes hanger could break the vial and activate the water flow. |
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| ▲ | mikestew 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| "By accident"? How do you think sprinklers work, exactly? You "accidentally" left the sauna door open and now the living room is 160F? If it were a problem, you'd be hearing about it from apartment dwellers, since sprinklers are required in many (if not most) cases: https://firetechsprinkler.com/blog/when-are-sprinklers-requi... |
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| ▲ | bobmcnamara 4 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Shelves moving and people hanging suits on them come to mind. | |
| ▲ | lxgr 3 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Maybe in the US. I've never seen a sprinkler in an apartment building in Europe. | | |
| ▲ | appreciatorBus 3 days ago | parent [-] | | Mandating sprinklers in apartments, but not in houses, is one of the myriad ways North America chose to make the construction of apartments uneconomical, and thus uncommon. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0194436920897553... > Veiller, concerned with strategy, proposed that legislation to prevent multifamily housing use indirect methods because "zoning legislation will no doubt be fought strenuously and perhaps defeated." He
outlined an approach designed to make apartment construction, even of three-unit dwellings, prohibitively expensive: > ‘Do everything possible in our laws to encourage the construction of private dwellings and even two-family dwellings, because the two-family house is the next least objectionable type, and penalize so far as we can in our statute, the multiple dwelling of any kind.... If we require multiple dwellings to be fireproof, and thus increase the cost of construction; if we require stairs to be fireproofed, even where there are only three
families; if we require fire escapes and a host of other things, all dealing with fire protection, we are on safe grounds, because that can be justified as a legitimate exercise of the police power.... In our laws let most of the fire provisions relate solely to multiple dwellings, and allow our private houses and two-family houses to be built with no fire protection whatever’ (NHA Proceedings 1913, 212). | | |
| ▲ | lxgr 3 days ago | parent [-] | | Wow, I heard about the weird dual staircase fire regulation thing (effectively requiring these horrible dystopian corridors), but I had no idea these regulations were that intentionally anti-apartment-building. | | |
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| ▲ | ccamrobertson 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Worse yet, you might not have a choice; the article notes that “sprinklers are already required in all new California homes built in 2011 and later.” |
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| ▲ | ErroneousBosh 3 days ago | parent [-] | | Well, one choice would be to simply not live in California. There's no good reason why anyone would want to. |
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| ▲ | lurking_swe 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| let me help educate you. :) Most common sprinkler type used in a residential setting is “wet pipe”:
https://www.nfpa.org/news-blogs-and-articles/blogs/2021/03/2... The sprinkler is “activated” if the ambient temperature around the sprinkler head is 40C, due to the little “wet pipe” in the sprinkler bursting. 40C is HOT. Basically - when your whole apartment is beginning to catch fire. It’s designed to save lives, not your things. Newer (higher end) apartments will have the sprinkler itself hidden / recessed, this way the little wet pipe / vial can’t be accidentally damaged by force (when cleaning, painting, etc) |
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| ▲ | serf 4 days ago | parent | next [-] | | 40c is miserable to be in, but it's not really that hot compared to fire or combustion. The record hot day in Phoenix was 50c; miserable but livable w/ precautions. wet pipe burst temps are between 57c-75c . | |
| ▲ | prmoustache 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | While 40°C is hot, it is not insanely hot. Every summer temp goes easily above 35°C in my apartment for a number of days. | |
| ▲ | BeetleB 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | 40C is not comfortable, but it's pretty normal summer weather in many parts of the world. | |
| ▲ | ErroneousBosh 3 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | > The sprinkler is “activated” if the ambient temperature around the sprinkler head is 40C So pretty much room temperature in central Europe in summer? | | |
| ▲ | lurking_swe 2 days ago | parent [-] | | there’s different types of sprinklers which can be used in different settings. :) And actually i misspoke on the 40C! I mixed up that number with something else so that’s my bad. It actually activates around 60C-70C depending on the make/model. |
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| ▲ | 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
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| ▲ | cucumber3732842 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| It's kind of funny that everyone's crapping on this comment when the poor value proposition of sprinklers in residential settings is exactly what enabled the investment to develop this system. |
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| ▲ | jeffbee 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I use to worry about this but the industry claims about 1 per 20 million accidental discharge per year, which over the lifespan of a home works out to be 10-1000x less than other common hazards (including fire). |
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| ▲ | 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
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| ▲ | estimator7292 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Please enlighten us then, why do many countries require commercial kitchens have fire sprinklers if it's such a terrible and dangerous idea? |
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| ▲ | wolrah 4 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Most developed jurisdictions require commercial kitchens (and commercial spaces in general) to have fire suppression systems, not necessarily fire sprinklers. Water sprinklers are a common choice for fire suppression in many spaces because they're relatively cheap, but they're not the only option. A kitchen fire suppression system will generally be a wet chemical system that will safely blanket a grease fire while still being easy to clean off of food prep surfaces unlike dry chemicals. | |
| ▲ | ErroneousBosh 3 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Presumably because the regulations were written by people who have zero experience of either kitchens, fires, or kitchen fires. Do you know what happens when you put water on an oil fire, which is pretty much what you're going to have in a kitchen? | | |
| ▲ | post-it 3 days ago | parent | next [-] | | > Do you know what happens when you put water on an oil fire When the water is coming out of the ceiling at 25 gpm, you get a lot of slightly oily water and no fire. To answer your earlier question, the purpose of sprinklers in a house is to save my pets' lives if a fire starts while I'm away. | |
| ▲ | ceejayoz 3 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | You seem to erroneously believe these are a little squirt gun pointed right at the oil pot. |
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| ▲ | Larrikin 4 days ago | parent | prev [-] |
| That's not how sprinklers work? Have you ever lived in a place with sprinklers? Do you actually think they go off when ever the highly sensitive smoke detectors detect you made your pizza extra crispy with the window closed. |
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