How Many Sprinklers Heads Do I Need for a Residential Fire?

By Mountain Publishing @mountainpublish

Sprinklers are very important for the safety of your home and your family. It only takes one little spark to burn the whole house down to ashes. Sprinklers are one of the most useful tools that help in firefighting, and they can reduce the chances of deaths and property loss by 65%. A fire outbreak is a persistent danger in the household, and everyone is advised to be wary of it.

Historically, Constantinople, Rome, Amsterdam was rained down by the fire. Tokyo, Moscow, and many other countries. Fires can start from anywhere and spread everywhere. Therefore, you must take every precaution and make your residence as safe as possible. Ensure that you undertake the acquisition and installation of a suppression system for fire in your household. Generally, the suppression system is known as a fire sprinkler system.

Before getting to the installation procedure and the placement of the sprinklers, first, you must know what a sprinkler is and how it works.

A sprinkler system is simply a network of water pipes that run through the ceiling of your building. These pipes have water flowing through them under pressure. The sprinklers are basically outlets or taps through which this water gets scattered or sprinkled on the floor and walls. A fire sprinkler system works by using heat triggers. Heat triggers are special heat-sensitive sensors that detect heat and activate the sprinkler system when the temperature goes above a certain point (FYI: smoke does not trigger the fire sprinkler system). Whenever fire or spark is ignited, the air above the said spark or fire heats up, the sensors pick up this heat and trigger the sprinkler system. A piece of metal of well-organized colorations fills the glass. The metal is known as a fusible link.

After having a brief understanding of how a fire sprinkler works, it is now time to understand how to install the sprinkler system and how many fire sprinklers you will need to install in your residence. There are different types of fire sprinklers. The standard sprinkler covers an area of 12' x 12', and the extended area coverage sprinkler can cover an area of 20' x 20'. Each sprinkler should be placed at a distance of at least 8' from the other. So, an average will only require two or three sprinkler heads to cover the whole room. And also, make sure if you search for sprinklers near me using your mobile you need to choose a good company to install the sprinklers in your residence.

The above measurements are area coverages that can be applied to almost all the rooms and residences, but there are a few things that you must keep in mind. The height of the residence matters a lot because if you increase the height of the room, the water that is sprinkled from the system will spread, making the layer thin, which will make them less effective against the fire.

If you have a room of 20' x 20', you will need to install only two standard sprinklers, and they will be enough to cover the whole room, or you can just install the extended area coverage sprinkler, which will cover the whole room all by itself. It will be installed in the center of the ceiling. So, for your average rooms, one or two fire sprinklers are more than enough.

Let us take the kitchen as an example. Kitchens are usually 12' x 12', and therefore one standard fire sprinkler will be able to cover the whole kitchen, and if you want to be extra safe and cautious, then you can install two sprinklers if your kitchen is bigger than 12' x 12' then you can add three or four sprinklers as per the size of your kitchen. The kitchen is part of a residence that has the highest chances of catching fire. Therefore, you must be extremely careful and vigilant when it comes to installing sprinklers.

Most of the residences have big dining rooms, living rooms, and seating areas. A standard living room has a size of 12×18 feet, and it is considered to be a small one, while in custom homes have living rooms are of 22 x 28 feet. Now, if you are installing standard fire sprinklers in 12 x 18 feet living room, then only two fire sprinklers are enough that can be placed on equal distance from each other along the width of the ceiling of the living room. Similarly, one extended fire sprinkler is enough for 12 x 12, as it is capable of covering an area of 20 x 20 feet. If you have a large living room of 22 x 28, then you will have to install three standard size sprinklers that are 8 feet apart from each other, along the width of the living room in order to cover the whole room.

It is just simple mathematics. All you have to do is calculate the area of the residence, and you can figure it out by doing simple math. But in some cases, the placement and arrangement of the sprinklers can become a bit confusing. In such cases, you should hire professionals to guide you. Always choose a good company to install the sprinkler system in your residence. Because good companies have experts who have years of experience, and they can tell the number of sprinklers that are required and where they should be installed just by looking at the rooms. They are that good. In addition to this, they will also guide you about the type of sprinklers that will best suit your home. Sprinklers have a lot of types, depending upon the size, area coverage, sensors, heat sensitivity, temperatures, etc. All of these can confuse you; therefore, it is better to leave it to the professionals where you are having trouble.