October 15, 2024

Designing Residential Fire Sprinkler Systems: A Comprehensive Guide

Residential sprinklers are the first choice for protecting residential occupancies. This type of sprinkler is fast response and higher wall-wetting characteristics than spray sprinklers. In this article, we will design the residential sprinkler system for the suite, as illustrated in Figure 1. The north direction is indicated for reference. Our design is based on the NFPA 13, 2016 Edition standard.

• Coverage Area of Residential Sprinklers:

One important difference between residential sprinklers with standard spray, CMSA, and ESFR sprinklers is that their coverage area depends on the available pressure.

Refer to Section 8.10.2.1 of NFPA 13; the coverage area shall be per the manufacturer`s listing. Suppose a manufacturer makes a residential pendent sprinkler model PND100. The coverage area table can be found in the datasheet of this model as follows:

Table 1 - Coverage area & pressure- Model PND100

According to this table, the model PND100 covers 3.7m × 3.7m with 0.5 bar (7 psi), and 6.1m × 6.1m if 1.17 bar (17 psi) is available.

The coverage area of model PND100 is drawn in Figure 2:

Figure 2 - Coverage area of model PND100

That manufacturer also produces residential sidewall model SW200. The maximum distance between the deflector and the ceiling on this model is 150 mm (6 in).

Table 2 - Coverage area & pressure- Model SW200

For more in-depth details on designing residential fire sprinkler systems, including advanced room layouts and NFPA obstruction rules, you can download the complete 50-page guide:

Download the Full Guide Here (PDF)