Whether you're building a new home, adding on to your existing home, or simply want to protect your family and your assets in your current house -- you need to consider residential fire sprinklers.Fires in American homes killed more than 3000 people in 2006.
One would think that all the talk of fire safety, smoke alarms, and in-home fire extinguishers that the numbers might be going down.
What is the problem? According to a recent study provided by Underwriters Laboratories (the U.L. on nearly all electronic equipment) and The Fire Protection Research Foundation.
From their site:
The $700,000 joint study systematically investigated the characteristics of smoke and how materials used in modern residential settings have changed the way fires behave in homes. The year-long Smoke Characterization Project studied 27 synthetic and natural materials and various combinations of materials now more commonly found in homes.
Their study reveals that there are fewer natural materials in our homes today. We used to have furniture, window treatments, rugs, and other household items made from cotton, wool, silk, rubber, linen, etc. But now... homes are filled with plastics, polyester, rayon, and more.In the study, they burned a lot of the synthetic materials found in a typical American home to see how they would react in a fire. Items were set aflame individually and together. Couches, mattresses, carpeting, even appliances were burned to test burn rates and smoke composition.
According to their study - fires in homes burned hotter and faster and smoldered longer because of the increase in synthetic materials:
The study also concluded that because fires could grow more rapidly, the time needed to escape some types of fires has been reduced from approximately 17 minutes to as little as three minutes in certain situations.Three minutes is not very long. In any situation.
A remedy for this could be the installation of a fire sprinkler system in new homes and a retrofit in existing homes.
- Fire sprinklers react quicker to a fire and usually have the blaze completely out in the time it would take for the fire department to arrive on scene.
- Sprinklers use less water (by as much as 80% in most cases) than the average fire department trying to put out your fire.
- Systems are not nearly as expensive to install as most think. In a new construction, it's usually around $1 per square foot. Retrofit costs can run from $2 to $5 per square foot and may go as high as $10 per if the work needed is more specialized and difficult.
- Homes with fire sprinklers installed generally pay a much lower insurance premium than those without, helping the system to pay for itself.
- All sprinkler heads do not come on at once. Usually one head comes on in the location of the fire and that is enough to put out the flames.
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If you'd like to talk with a fire sprinkler company to get an estimate on installing them in your home, we're here to help. You can post your request on ConstructionDeal.com for free. We'll connect you with local sprinkler system installers.
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