Every Second Counts- Why it's time to re-think the Sprinkler.

Full article written by Plumis Co founder William Makant can be found here

Activated by heat, most sprinkler heads operate when temperatures reach a predetermined threshold, causing liquid inside a bulb to expand and shatter the glass, releasing a deluge of water. But what if temperatures aren’t high enough to trigger this reaction? Often the heat required alone would far exceed what’s survivable by any occupants in the vicinity, not to mention the deadly effects of toxic smoke produced by the fire.

Smoke is a killer, with being ‘overcome by smoke or gas’ recorded as responsible for nearly athird of fire related fatalities in England during 2019/20. The consequences of smoke inhalation can also lead to a number of serious long term health problems which differ in severity depending on a person’s age and any pre-existing conditions they may have.

All fires will give off harmful smoke, but not all fires grow quickly enough to produce enough heat to activate a sprinkler system, before its effects will have overcome anyone unable to escape. Sprinklers are most effective when tackling fast-growing fires, they were not designed for smaller, slow burning, smouldering fires which can emit large quantities of smoke before a sprinkler would be able to operate, that’s if it does at all.

In a fire every second counts and it shouldn’t be assumed that everybody is able to escape easily. Vulnerable individuals, particularly the elderly or disabled may struggle to get out of a burning building. It could even cause them more harm by trying, for this reason, greater protection is much needed for the most vulnerable, with thoseover the age of 60 statistically more likely to die in a fire. By 2066 it’s predicted that overa quarter of UK residents will be over 65, so many more will be at risk, but an aging population is just one concerning risk factor.

We are also in the midst of a housing crisis and providers are looking to modern methods of construction to meet the overstretched demand. Dwellings are also more densely populated and fires themselves are changing, with those caused by electrical items, white goods and lithium-ion batteries (found in mobile phones and laptops) now much more common in the home than they were ten years ago. Fire protection must evolve to meet these new challenges, the consequences of failing to do so are too high.

Effective fire strategies must reflect that occupancy and risks presented differ on a case by case basis and therefore use a combined approach of safety measures that complement each other, utilising the attributes best suited to the risks.

Simply installing sprinklers as a tick box exercise or the easiest route to compliance is not enough to mitigate the risk to society’s most vulnerable. The cost in occupancy and risk situations where they may not perform well or at all is too great and we should not wait for another tragedy to act on this.

This is why we strive to offer a different solution, one that prioritises life safety. We were inspired by fire fighters who were prepared to put their lives on the line to save others and sought to challenge traditional approaches to demonstrate how new technology could solve problems other methods could not, to ultimately protect and save more lives.

To do this, firstly we examined the often overlooked ‘invisible’ failures, such as the negative consequences of fires that were not big enough to activate sprinklers. Secondly, we investigated how injury and death could be reduced in cases where sprinklers did activate.

We chose to design our award winning watermist fire suppression system, Automist to be better and operate faster, preserving survivable conditions. Our aim was to protect those most vulnerable and create a system that would provide protection, regardless of whether someone was able to escape a fire or not.

Electronic operation allows for earlier detection and activation, critical to improving life safety. Survivability is increased especially in slower burning fires, as suppression kicks in quickly so there is less time for lethal smoke and heat in the room to build up.

When tested against a conventional sprinkler at the Fire Protection Association’s research facility, Automist was able to activate up to two minutes faster when tackling a tricky concealed fire, typical to many modern appliance fires. Rather than relying on heat, Automist uses a combined heat and smoke detector on the ceiling which can be linked to a communications device to call for help in situations where vulnerable people are involved.

If triggered, Automist’s intelligent infrared sensor scans the room looking for heat changes which indicate a growing fire. False or unnecessary activations are minimised because the system’s algorithms are trained to recognise temperature patterns and distinguish those signalling a dangerous fire.

Introducing electronics into this technology achieves far more than is possible with the average sprinkler system. On every activation data is stored which is used to optimise the intelligent algorithm. This record also provides a more informed account of what happened, which is invaluable information to insurers. Faults can also be self diagnosed remotely. It’s crucial that fire protection works when called upon, a faulty sprinkler could potentially sit for months unnoticed until the moment it fails to activate when needed.

Unlike most sprinklers which are placed on the ceiling, Automist’s sprayheads are wall mounted, enabling them to target fires more efficiently with watermist. Instead of using large quantities of water to wet every surface, watermist uses smaller droplets which can suppress fires using significantly less water – Automist uses 90% less water than a normal sprinkler – reducing potential damage to property.

Positioning sprayheads on the wall takes advantage of natural turbulence in a fire to draw droplets into the base of the fire. So this works in a way that uses the factors in play to get the best out of watermist.

Since this technology can be connected to the mains water supply, no tank is needed. It can be easily retrofitted with minimum disruption to residents, often working out much cheaper to install than sprinklers, making it an ideal solution for social housing.

Despite all of this, one of the biggest challenges we face as innovators is getting stakeholders to look beyond existing systems to understand the possibilities that new technology brings. Currently, there is too much reliance on prescriptive guidance and standards, and as a result any system that doesn’t fit into narrowly defined principles can be overlooked despite how well it actually performs.

Many mistake the guidance provided by standards for law and will recommend a standardised system simply because they believe fulfilling a standard is the only criteria a solution should be judged upon. Safety should not be a box ticking exercise, but instead as we’ve identified, it must take into consideration the unique circumstances in every situation to decide the approach that fits best.

Thankfully attitudes do appear to be changing, although there is a long way to go. Dame Judith Hackitt advised in her independent review of building fire safety regulations that prescription discourages accountability and ownership of safety decisions. She favoured an outcomes based approach which offers a way forward focusing on a solution’s ability to perform.

So as the National Fire Chief Council encourages us all to ‘ThinkSprinkler’, this week is the perfect opportunity to look again at fire safety and ask if it’s in fact time we ‘re-think the sprinkler’ and what this means for all of us.

If you missed our webinar on why we decided to re-think the sprinkler and develop Automist you can watch a recording here