Comments on: Sprinkler System Plumbing

By: Ed

Ed — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 00:43:39 +0000

when the water lines are subject to freezing temperatures and the lines are charged with nitrogen

That sounds like it’d be a delicate operation on a sprinkler system, but it’d certainly make sense in a large structure where the alternative is having all those steel pipes crack!

By: biguggy

biguggy — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 00:24:02 +0000

That is a relatively simple installation, imagine a system on a passenger (cruise) ship where the water, after the the pressure drop switch activates, comes from a sea water pump to supplying the system. That pump will be fed by emergency electrical power and, arrangements will be required to flush the system of seawater after use, or test, to prevent corrosion. Another twist is when the water lines are subject to freezing temperatures and the lines are charged with nitrogen.

By: Ed

Ed — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 19:59:31 +0000

I think the long drain line provides a way to test the pressure-drop alarm switch, but beyond that it’s a mystery.

We’re obviously the kind of people who routinely take the stairs just so we can find them in an emergency…

By: Ed

Ed — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 19:55:32 +0000

If I’d been thinking, I’d have taken a picture of the pressure gauges on each floor. There should be 20 or 30 psi difference from top to bottom, so, with 180 psi on the top floor, it’d be well over 200 in the basement!

There’s no such thing as a slow leak at those pressures…

By: rkward

rkward — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 18:49:25 +0000

I could not readily find the pictures I took a few years ago of several I saw that were considerably more complicated. It really looks like a Rube Goldberg device, but I could never find the bowling ball section. I’m sure that it all has a purpose, but upon first glance and knowing what it does, it seems rather unnecessarily complicated. Love to see a block diagram, it might explain a few things.

By: biguggy

biguggy — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 16:57:03 +0000

The pressure has to be enough to overcome the ‘head’ (approximately half a pound per square inch per foot of head) and leave enough to operate the sprinklers at the highest level.