Why arent homes built with fire extinguishing (supression) systems

[AgentJean]

Originally posted by: EyeMWing

Originally posted by: Greenman

Originally posted by: AgentJean
Halon has the tendency to extinguish humans along with fires. Not good.

News to me. I thought Halon was pretty much harmless?

Halon systems operate by replacing the oxygen as the fire burns. As such, it needs to be in a sealed environment to be 100% effective. And these sealed environments typically tend to be server closets - with one door. If you can't use that door, and the Halon system engages, you're F'd. It's unlikely, but it has happened.

Wait, so that scene in Terminator 2 was bogus?

 

[FallenHero]

Originally posted by: MIKEMIKE

Originally posted by: FallenHero

Originally posted by: MIKEMIKE
there is no such thing as a fire extinguishing system.

there are fire supression systems, which allow for 15 more minutes to escape, but if the fire starts, and gets hot enough to melt a sprinkler head (temps vary depending upon head), the house will burn.

Actually, a fair amount of fires are put out by sprinkler heads. The ones that spread are usually do to the malfunction of the system itself.

this is not what i have been told/read/heard.

typically, if the firesprinkler goes off, and it puts out the fire, your gunna be paying a crapload for water damage anyways. however, if a fire starts say, in a wall, and begins to spread (like a LOT of house fires) in order to open a sprinkler head, it will have to have busted through the wall, and melted it. by the time it is through the wall, its basically to late, and all it will do is allow the extra 15 minutes to escape before a majority of the house is on fire.

A decent sprinkler system that is up to date will be able to handle the start of a small fire. Yes, larger ones it cannot handle, but they get large due to inadaquet coverage or copius amounts of fuel for which the system was not designed. If you really wanted to go all out in a house, you could make it a wet sprinkler system with a heat sensor activation. For complete coverage, a deluge system would put out the fire in seconds...but it would also get the entire house wet.

Also, don't forget, your average sprinkler head will put out about 10-15 gallons per minute. That may not seem like alot, but its only really covering an area of 10-20 feet. In a room that is 15x15, for good coverage, you probably want 2-3 sprinkler heads and enough heat/light/smoke detectors around so that it doesn't wait for the open burn stage of a fire, instead it gets it while its still smoldering and smoking.


<---Minored in fire science/arson. Brother is also a FF. If am I wrong, please let me know. I'd rather know the truth than seem like some ass on the internet.