Fire sprinklers are common in office buildings but not so common in people's houses. How come?
I'm thinking of adding such a system to my house but... I don't know... maybe there is a reason for why that is? Might not be a good idea? Too expensive? What?
Why aren't houses equipped with fire sprinklers?
Actually, there are different types of sprinkler systems. In lots of residential homes, a personal protection type system are being installed. These systems use existing water pressure and lower flow heads. The heads are not interconnected and only release water if the temp is high enough at the individual heads. The purpose is not to extinguish the fire, rather give occupants more time to escape a burning building. These are very affordable and becoming quite popular. In fact, they are required in many areas now, especially for new construction and multi-unit rental properties. They are easy to install, especially in new construction as they use standard 1/2 inch PEX tubing and an inexpensive thermo heads.
These differ greatly from the traditional pressurized systems that are designed to trip all the heads if one is activated and supply a deluge of water to extinguish fires. These systems are normally monitored by a security company or local fire dept via phone lines. They use a control board, communications modems, and closed loop water supply systems. The high cost of this type of system is the reason they are rarely used in residential settings.
I have been researching this subject and it seems like its pretty cheap to add sprinklers during the construction stage.
If I was building a house I wouldn't hesitate for even a second to install one. I don't understand why someone wouldn't do if given a choice. Moreover I think it should be mandatory for all new construction. I'm currently saving up money to retrofit them to my 3 family apt building.
But a lot of times there is a strong lobby from builders and developers against sprinklers as installing them cuts into their profit margin. Also many people are not aware of them or misunderstand how they work(I.e they think if one sprinkler goes off, then they all go off and flood tr house) Even if that was the case I would take a flood over fire any time
