Sustainability in fire protection

An Executive Interview with Project Fire

David O’Riley, Development Manager for Project Fire explains how he is working to minimise the impact of fire sprinkler systems on the environment.

“A sprinkler system wasted water every time its primary active elements are tested: pumps, flow-switches and alarm valves”
-David O'Riley

INFRA. How did you go about improving the sustainability of a fire sprinkler system?
David O’Riley. Sustainability is primarily about reducing water wastage, reducing energy consumption and minimising the carbon footprint, so we simply applied these very simple principles to the design of a fire sprinkler system.

INFRA. How did you manage to address the environmental issue of using water?
DO. There are two issues with respect to sprinkler systems, water usage and water storage. A sprinkler system wastes water every time its primary active elements are tested, pumps, flow-switches and alarm valves etc. The tests are required by the industry’s standards authorities to ensure that the system remains ‘fit for purpose’. What Project Fire has been able to do is develop a simple cost effective system that enables a compliant test to be carried out whilst minimising water wastage.

The volume of stored water required by a fire sprinkler system is determined by the risk. For some risk classifications optimising the design will minimise the volume of water required, in some instances adopting an alternative sprinkler head, and changing the operating pressure can achieve impressive results. This approach has the added advantage of also reducing the size of the distribution pipe-work and fittings, which in turn reduces cost, and the system’s overall carbon footprint, making it more sustainable.

INFRA. Are there any issues in using desalinated water in a fire sprinkler system?
DO. Since most sprinkler systems use ferrous materials, any water that contains oxygen will promote corrosion in the pipe-work and fittings, if the water is also acidic, then it would be fair to say that the rate of corrosion would be accelerated. There is however another factor to take into account, if no fresh water is introduced into the system, then the oxygen and acid will soon become a spent force, and corrosion will all but cease, so there is yet another reason for not expelling water from the system.

INFRA. How will your solutions reduce energy consumption?
DO. Once installed, a sprinkler system only has one primary consumer of energy, and they are the fire pumps. The two things that govern energy consumption are the rating of the pumps size and the number of hours of operation, so quite naturally we looked at addressing both.

The hours of operation are in-part determined by the standards authority requiring a weekly test, there is however another reason why the fire pumps operate and this is to do with the testing of alarm valves and zone flow-switches.

Every time one of these devices is tested through the release of water, the fire pumps operate. In a building with just a few zones this would only consume a small amount of energy, but in large buildings with many hundreds of fire zones, such as the Burj Dubai, the fire pumps would be operating continuously for nearly 200 hours every three months, just because of the alarm valve and flow-switch tests. Using Project Fire’s remote testing devices, we reduce this to almost zero.

With regard to the size of the pumps, much depends on the risk classification and the actual building being protected. The largest pumps however are usually found in high-rise buildings where they are required to overcome the force of gravity. Project Fire has developed a novel approach to this particular problem that results in a considerable reduction in pump sizing, with the attendant reduction in energy consumption and carbon footprint.

INFRA. Are there any other areas where sustainability can be improved?
DO. Once a fire sprinkler system has been installed, it must be maintained ‘fit for purpose’ for the rest of its working life, and that requires the commitment of resource, which in turn has a cost and carbon footprint. Project Fire has developed a sprinkler management system that is on-line 24/7 providing comprehensive support whilst reducing cost and the life-cycle carbon footprint.