Highlights

• Fire department located three miles away
• Sandy and Sherrie Nichols decide they needed an onsite option to protect their new home
• Multipurpose system saves installation time and materials
• Provides the round-the-clock sense of security the Nichols family sought

Background

Wanted: Fire Protection 24/7/365

When Sandy and Sherrie Nichols moved into the upscale equestrian community of Saddle Springs Estates near Nashville, Tenn., and built their 5,600-square-foot home, they wanted to make certain that the peace and tranquility of the paradise they created for themselves would not be disrupted by a home fire.

“Our volunteer fire department is about three miles away,” Sandy says. “If there were a fire, we figured that it would take them from 10 to 12 minutes to get here. By that time, the damage to our house would be considerable.”

The Nichols family subsequently decided to have their own personal “fire department” built right into their home – one that would be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That might be hard to imagine, but it is exactly what their Uponor Fire Safety System provides.

Cost-conscious Option

The traditional method of installing residential fire sprinklers requires three sets of piping: one for hot water, a second for cold water, and a third for a standalone sprinkler system. The multipurpose Uponor system combines the cold-water plumbing and the fire-sprinkler line into one. As a result, a multipurpose installation can cost up to 15% less than a standalone system, averaging only 1 to 2 percent of the total cost of building a new home.

The Uponor system is the only non-stagnant, fire-sprinkler system currently available. Each time a cold-water plumbing fixture is used, fresh water is drawn to the sprinkler, eliminating stagnant water from the system. In the event of a fire, a sprinkler is heat-activated at 155°F. In less than three minutes, the flow of water discharges at 10 to 15 gallons per minute through only the sprinkler that senses the heat from the fire. Once that fire is contained – usually in three to five minutes – the homeowner can turn off the system, even before the fire department arrives.

“Fire department hoses typically discharge about 250 gallons of water per minute,” says contractor Lance Maliszewski of Elite Plumbing and Radiant in Franklin, Tenn. “What most people don’t realize is that excessive water from firefighter hoses and smoke can be more damaging than the fire itself.”