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.
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