#260 – What Makes

Residential Fire Sprinkler

Heads Special?
September 2, 2019

For one thing, they’re fast. A look at

how residential fire sprinkler heads are
different from other sprinklers, why
they were developed, and where to use
them
 In 1973, the National Commission on Fire Prevention and
Control published a report entitled “America Burning.” It found that most
deaths due to fire in the United States occurred in residential buildings—
and those most likely to die in residential fires were young children and
adults over the age of 65. This can be attributed to their need for
assistance in exiting burning buildings as well as the reduced likelihood
that they will hear smoke alarms immediately, if at all. In response to
these findings, the report recommended that a fire sprinkler system be
designed specifically for residential use.

Prior to this point, the primary focus of commercial fire sprinkler systems
had been property protection. A new residential fire sprinkler system was
to be designed with the primary purpose of saving lives. Installation and
maintenance requirements of residential fire sprinkler systems were also
designed to be simpler and easier than requirements for other fire
sprinkler systems, with the overall goal of spurring much broader
adoption and saving as many lives as possible.

This recommendation led to the development of NFPA 13D: Standard for

the Installation of Sprinkler Systems in One- and Two-Family Dwellings
and Manufactured Homes. This standard defines an automatic sprinkler
as “a fire suppression or control device that operates automatically when
its heat-actuated element is heated to its thermal rating or above,
allowing water to discharge over a specific area.”
Automatic sprinklers can be categorized as either standard
response or fast response, depending on their response time index
(RTI). RTI measures thermal sensitivity, or how quickly the sprinkler can
absorb enough heat from its surroundings to cause it to activate. The
lower the RTI, the faster the sprinkler activates.

There are four subcategories of fast response sprinklers—quick response,

ESFR (early suppression, fast response), QREC (quick response, extended
coverage), and residential fire sprinkler heads.

NFPA 13 defines a residential sprinkler as “a type of fast-response

sprinkler having a thermal element with an RTI of 50 (meter-seconds)1⁄2
or less, that has been specifically investigated for its ability to enhance
survivability in the room of fire origin, and that is listed for use in the
protection of dwelling units.” Automatic sprinklers generally have RTIs
between 35 and 250 m½s½, so you can see where residential sprinklers
(50 m½s½ or less) fall on this spectrum.

Thus, while “automatic sprinkler” is a very broad category that includes

all sprinkler types and performance objectives, “residential sprinklers” are
specifically designed with a focus on life safety in the home. And that
means they set off fast.

 
 Q
RFS offers a wide selection of residential fire sprinklers, including (left to
right) pendent, concealed, and sidewall.
How a residential fire sprinkler head
works
Most residential sprinkler systems are wet systems, where the sprinkler
heads are joined to a network of water-filled pipes running throughout
the building’s walls and ceilings. The sprinkler heads act as outlets and
plugs that hold the water within the pipes. Each sprinkler head has a
trigger, either a metal link that is soldered together or (standard in home
sprinklers) a glass tube filled with a heat-sensitive liquid.

If a fire starts in the home, the air temperature will begin to rise. Once
the temperature around the sprinkler head reaches a certain point, it
causes the soldered metal link to break or the temperature-sensitive
liquid in the glass tube to expand, shattering the tube. This allows a plug
to drop away and water to rush out of the sprinkler head. The water is
fanned around the room by passing through a “deflector” that creates an
umbrella-type spray pattern. This spray pattern can vary a bit, depending
on the sprinkler type.
 So
urce: The Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition
The temperature rating of the operating element in a residential fire
sprinkler head indicates the temperature at which it will deploy, and the
color of the bulb indicates the temperature. For example, a 155°F rated
sprinkler will deploy when the red operating element’s temperature
reaches approximately 155°F. However, the air temperature may need to
be significantly higher than 155°F before the sprinkler’s operating
element reaches that temperature.

The operating elements of fast-response sprinklers have a smaller mass

than those of other sprinklers, which allows them to have a much smaller
RTI—again, meaning they deploy much more rapidly.

To learn more about how a fire sprinkler’s thermal element works, check
out this article.
The primary goal of residential fire
sprinkler systems
This fast response is important because the primary goal of residential
fire sprinkler systems is to prevent loss of life. Since survivability
(“tenability”) is the primary focus, controlling the environment in the
affected compartment (often, a room in a home) is a key objective.

A residential fire commonly involves modern furnishings that have

substantial amounts of plastics and other synthetic material that can
cause fires to develop more quickly than in the past, along with deadly
smoke. Modern homes also often use lightweight construction materials
that “burn quicker and fail faster.” Carbon monoxide levels and heat can
rise quickly while oxygen levels drop, and a quickly spreading fires can
make escape impossible and/or cause flashover: “the near-simultaneous
ignition of most of the directly exposed combustible material in an
enclosed area.”

Watch this simulation of flashover in a home from the Oak Ridge Fire
Department:

By activating early and throwing water onto the upper levels of walls,
residential sprinklers can keep the compartment tenable and buy
precious time for occupants to escape.

Residential buildings may also have a more limited water supply than
commercial or industrial buildings. NFPA 13D requires residential
sprinkler systems to have a water supply of at least 10 minutes, which the
technical committee responsible for writing the standard has deemed
enough time for occupants to evacuate a small residential building. This
means that fires that aren’t controlled or extinguished within that 10-
minute time period may grow quickly if the water supply is exhausted
before firefighters arrive. Thus, the sooner the sprinklers are activated to
control the fire, the better.

Along with having operating elements with a smaller mass than other
types of sprinklers, residential sprinklers also have a special water
distribution pattern. Because combustible furnishings such as sofas and
curtains are often placed against the walls in homes, residential
sprinklers must provide even coverage, especially to walls. Curtains, in
particular, are often hung quite high, so it’s important that residential
sprinklers wet both the upper and lower parts of the walls. This prevents
the fire from spreading upwards and also cools its emitted gasses, which
tend to rise with heat and can be highly flammable. If these gasses, such
as carbon monoxide, accumulate just below the ceiling and combust,
deadly flashover can occur.

Statistics compiled by NFPA show that fire sprinklers reduce the rate of

residential fire deaths by almost 80% while lowering property damage by
as much as 70%. So, even though property protection is a secondary
goal for residential sprinkler systems, they have also been proven to
significantly lower fire damage in homes.

Because sprinkler systems are so effective at preventing deaths by fire,

NFPA would like to see them installed in as many residential buildings as
possible. To this end, residential fire standards are specifically designed
to make installing residential sprinkler systems as economically viable as
possible. This is partially accomplished by the wide range of system types
that can be used, including standalone and multipurpose systems—the
latter of which integrate with home plumbing—and the allowed use of a
less-expensive thermoplastic pipe.

To learn more about what makes residential fire sprinklers the ultimate
home fire safety solution, see this article.
A quick review of NFPA 13D
NFPA 13D is a design and installation standard, not a code. This means
that it covers how residential sprinkler systems are to be designed and
installed as well as tested, inspected, and maintained in jurisdictions
where they are required.

For residential sprinkler installations, NFPA 13D recommends that the

entire residence be sprinklered, with some exceptions (which we’ll detail
in a second). The standard requires that the sprinkler system’s water
supply and piping be sized to provide the required water discharge flow
rate to the two sprinklers in the affected compartment with the greatest
demand.

From the 2019 edition of NFPA 13D

3.3.38 Compartment. A space completely enclosed by walls and a ceiling. Each wall
in the compartment is permitted to have openings to an adjoining space if the
openings have a minimum lintel depth of 8 in. (200 mm) from the ceiling and the
total width of the openings in each wall does not exceed 8 ft (2.4 m). A single
opening of 36 in. (900 mm) or less in width without a lintel is permitted where there
are no other openings to adjoining spaces.

If each of the individual compartments in a home can be protected with

a single sprinkler, for example, then a single sprinkler can be calculated
in the design. In contrast, if the largest room has, say, 10 sprinklers in it
to cover such a large space, the water supply and piping would be
designed to assume that up to two sprinklers will activate.

The NFPA 13D and NFPA 13R: Automatic Sprinkler Systems for Residential
Occupancies Handbook  clarifies this requirement:

The size limits (i.e., height and area) of homes is not addressed by NFPA 13D. The
philosophy is that two sprinklers will be able to control a fire in such a manner to
prevent flashover in the room of origin for a long enough time to allow occupants
to escape; therefore, the size of the home is not considered to be a concern or
limiting factor.

Although NFPA standards recommend installing sprinklers in all areas of

a residence, they do permit the omission of sprinklers in certain spaces
where statistics indicate that few deaths by fire occur, such as
bathrooms, closets, pantries, garages, attics, and concealed spaces. NFPA
13D, section 8.3 details conditions that must be met for these spaces to
be omitted.

Allowing these spaces to be un-sprinklered helps lower the overall cost

of installation for residential fire sprinkler systems. That said, certain state
or local governments may require some of these areas to be covered by
sprinklers—so be sure to consult with your local fire code and authority
having jurisdiction (AHJ) to be sure.
Quick-response high-temperature sprinklers (rather than residential
sprinklers) are permitted in areas of a home like mechanical closets,
saunas, and steam rooms. Unlike residential sprinklers, quick response
sprinklers have not been evaluated for their ability to meet the tenability
criteria found in residential sprinkler testing standards. For this reason,
quick response sprinklers can only be used in some specifically identified
spaces for residential sprinkler installations. Some of these spaces, such
as mechanical rooms, are unoccupied, so life safety is not as great of a
concern. Other areas, such as saunas, may require higher temperature
ratings that are not currently available with residential sprinklers.

NFPA 13R: Developing a standard for

low-rise residential buildings
The first edition of NFPA 13R: Standard for the Installation of Sprinkler
Systems in Residential Occupancies up to and Including Four Stories in
Height, adopted in 1988, was developed to bridge the gap between
NFPA 13D and the commercial sprinkler standards of NFPA 13. Its
purpose was to encourage owners of low-rise residential building to
install sprinkler systems by making this installation more affordable.

Buildings that may qualify to use the NFPA 13R standard can include
apartment buildings, lodging/rooming houses, board and care facilities,
and hotels, motels, and dormitories that are four stories or less, meet
certain height requirements, and can be categorized as a residential
occupancy (or in some cases, depending on the model fire or building
code that applies, multiple occupancies). The residential portions of
pedestal/podium style buildings may qualify to use 13R standard as well.

Because buildings containing three or more residences are deemed to

have a higher risk of fire (due to the higher number of occupants) and an
increased difficulty of evacuation, the NFPA 13R standard is somewhat
more stringent than NFPR 13D—among other things, it requires that the
water supply and pipe sizing be based on the ability to provide the
required water discharge flow rate to four sprinklers in the affected
compartment with the greatest demand. Like NFPR 13D, NFPR 13R
allows for sprinklers to be omitted from certain spaces where statistically
few deadly fires start, but the qualifications for these spaces are
somewhat different. They can be found in NFPR 13R, section “6.6
Location of Sprinklers.”