How do office buildings test whether their sprinkler systems work?
In: Engineering
You can test all of the parts of a system without testing the system as a whole.
For instance:
If I wanted to know that my smoke detector worked, I wouldn’t have to start a fire; I would just need to release smoke somewhere in my home. To prevent any authorities from being alerted, I would turn off the internet connection, much like a building might turn off the water connection.
There is also a fair amount of research done on how long parts can last, and a bit of trust that no one has tampered with the parts.
They will not test every nozzle, but assume that the nozzles that aren’t old and look untouched are in working condition.
Beyond ELI5, it’s an actuarial problem, where you determine the cost of failure vs the cost of testing and decide how thorough you should be in upkeep. Testing every part or sprinkler-proofing the building regularly could probably become more costly than losing the building or regularly replacing the system over time.
They never do, the rest of the sprinkler and alarm system we test weekly
they are installed by well-trained individuals and the designs are signed off if there is never a fire they are never tested.
Sprinklers do not work like the movies. Each head has a temperature sensitive valve on it, when the right temperature is reached for a prescribed period of time the valve opens and does not shut. Some melt a solder weld, others expand liquid in glass tubes to start the sprinkler
This will cause a drop in pressure in the sprinkler system, as they are always pressurized with water (or air if freezing is an issue).
This drop in pressure causes all the fire sprinkler pumps to come on full speed and to stay on, continuously pumping water until someone authorized shuts them down
the pumps coming on do not cause any other sprinklers to activate this has to occur by fire or a heat source – we run the pumps weekly and no sprinklers let water out when doing so
When the sprinkler system is designed/ installed, there is an inspectors test valve. The system is tested by opening a valve to create flowing water in the system without opening a sprinkler head. This is to ensure the alarms will activate properly, and the inspectors can check pressure.
The individual heads are not tested once installed, for obvious reasons. Instead the heads are tested at the manufacturer with a random sampling of a production lot. Routine inspection of the heads, especially in dirty environments make sure the head isn’t caked with dust, grime, paint, etc. which would hinder activation.
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