Residential Fire Suppression Systems (Fire Sprinklers)
The sprinklers in our ceilings are part of a fire suppression system. There is only one shutoff valve for this system's water source, the city water meter valve in the alley. There is a separate valve in our garages for the non-sprinkler household plumbing.
If there is sufficient heat (135 – 165 degrees F) from a fire in one part of the home, the local sprinkler will activate and flood that area. Only one sprinkler will activate per each localized area of fire. Most of our sprinkler heads are hidden behind a lightweight plastic ceiling cover, for aesthetics. Note that these covers should never be painted over as the resultant adhesion to the ceiling may impede the sprinkler water flow when needed.
Fires as we know can start slow but then grow very rapidly. We hope that our smoke detectors alert us prior to this rapid phase of fire growth. Once the heat is great enough to activate a sprinkler, minutes count for escaping the danger. If the fire starts on the bottom floor of a home, those sleeping upstairs must be alerted. An important of the fire suppression system, besides flooding the local source of fire, is a warning system that the system has been activated.
Each of our homes have a fire suppression system riser in our garage behind an inspection door. If a system is over 5 years old, there are likely three materials used in this plumbing: copper up from the ground from the alley meter box, “orange plastic” or CPVC pipe leading to all of the home's sprinklers, and possibly galvanized couplers as seen in this photo as the silver colored “tees”. Galvanized pipe is notorious for corroding over time. Our riser was found to be leaky and rusted 7 years after construction. Water leaks inside of a wall is not good, an understatement. We had the galvanized components replaced with an all copper and orange pipe for close to $1000. Why so expensive? It took several hours of careful work, the plumber must be certified to do this work, and there is only one service that I could find in Tucson to do the work, Allan Fire Protection Systems, and they really don't like the poor business model of repairing residential systems and will try to decline the service.
What are the other components in this photo? The pressure meter in the photo is just that. It is the pressure for the entire house so is useful for that information. Our homes are equipped with a pressure adjustment valve (part of one is seen below the inspection door in the photo.)
The yellow-lever ball valve is for draining the sprinkler system to the alley. This is only needed for working on the system. There is no need to periodically drain residential systems, they don't rust.
The red box is used to alert us to an activated sprinkler in the house. It consists of a paddle inserted in the path of sprinkler water flow that will sound an alarm in the alley side of our homes and send a signal to the home's security panel. (Ever wonder what those red alarm bells are for?) The inside security panel(s) should chirp even if you don't have an active security service. If you do subscribe to a security service, they will immediately alert the fire department for you. Even if you don't care to maintain an active burglar intrusion service, this fire department connection is certainly a good case for a service contract. Unfortunately, or not, this is usually all or nothing service. This 'red box' has a dedicated breaker in your electrical service panel, so it is good to verify it is labeled and not tripped for any reason. If you hear a neighbor's alley fire suppression alarm, please call 911 immediately and ask questions later. Remember that the sprinkler can only be turned off in the alley meter box, so you would be wise to have the proper tools handy for this. Let's hope none of us ever need to use these suppression systems.
gs 10/25/23