At Brenneco, we take hands-on training seriously. But “hands-on” training doesn’t always mean “on-the-job” training. We are currently in the process of building a training room inside our shop in Flora, Indiana. When it is completed, we will be training new and experienced service technicians, and clients about the intricacies of fire protection systems.

What’s in it for the technicians?

Most of the traffic in our training room will be Brenneco’s technicians. Having equipment accessible means that they can become comfortable how different systems operate. We will have more formal training as well as hands-on troubleshooting opportunities.

Inside the training room, you will find a couple of different wet fire sprinkler systems and a couple of dry ones. We also have a pre-action system, a deluge system and some backflow devices. (Visit our Facebook page for more pictures.)

What’s that about “new hires”?

Yes, Brenneco is looking for service technicians to join our team. After visiting our Join the Team page, contact us to learn how to submit an application.

Why would a client want hands-on training?

Brenneco is always here when our clients need us, but sometimes they can take care of simple repairs without having to call us out for help. For example, if your sprinkler system accidentally activates on its own, resetting the dry valve might be the only necessary step in alleviating the issue. This is a simple procedure that a facility manager can easily master. Client education not only supports Brenneco’s role as a trusted advisor to our client, but it also helps clients eliminate unnecessary service calls – and costs.

For a tour of our training room (set to be fully functional by April 1) or to find out how you as a client can get trained, contact me.

Your pressure needs to pack a mean punch. Domestic water usually can't handle the job.

Your domestic water supply line feeds into your restroom faucets and drinking fountains. Hopefully the pressure coming out of your faucet is more than a trickle, but it’s probably not packing the punch needed to accommodate your fire sprinkler system.

When a sprinkler system is activated, it has to be able to deliver a minimum number of gallons of water per minute to control or suppress the fire. Between 10 and 100 gallons/minute is a common discharge rate for a single sprinkler head. Typically, new construction that includes a fire sprinkler system will include the installation of a separate water main with larger piping capable of providing enough water and pressure  to put out a fire. The piping in usual domestic supplies is no more than 2 inches, and a fire sprinkler system needs at least a 4-inch main to carry out its job.

If you are building from the ground up, your fire protection service provider will know to communicate design needs to the engineer or architect responsible. If you have an existing building and are installing a system, things can be a bit more complicated, but you should not expect serious interruptions.

If you have questions about your domestic water line or another fire sprinkler system question, please contact us.

Is this what happens when your sprinkler system is activated? (No.)

It happens all the time in the movies. A little smoke leads to hundreds of sprinkler heads spraying water all over a building, drenching every person and piece of furniture and equipment in sight. Don’t believe everything you see in the movies.

There is a common misconception that if one sprinkler head is activated, all of the heads will be activated. But that simply isn’t true. Neither is the idea that smoke can trigger a sprinkler head.

Each head is individually activated.

Sprinkler heads are connected to one another by the piping on which they are attached, but each head is activated individually. When one head on a length of piping starts spraying water, an adjacent head doesn’t automatically start spraying water as well. They act alone.

Heads are heat activated, not smoke activated.

Sprinkler heads are designed to be activated by intense heat. No amount of smoke will make that head start spraying water. Typically in an office setting, the heat has to reach 155 degrees before a head will be activated. In a warehouse, that temperature has to reach a sweltering 212 (water’s boiling point) or 286 degrees.

Generally any activated sprinkler heads will spray until someone shuts the water off.  Also, an alarm monitored by an alarm company is typically associated with each system. That company notifies your local fire department.

Of course, there are exceptions.

There are special systems in which smoke can activate systems, and all of the sprinkler heads dump water. Typically in a so-called deluge system, the heat-sensitive element in each of the system’s heads has been removed and the sprinkler head is open. When a smoke detector or heat detector goes off, water will be released and spray from the heads. These are usually found in more industrial settings.

If you have questions about how sprinkler heads work or any other questions about fire protection systems, get in touch.

Before you can begin installation on your facility’s fire sprinkler system, you have to complete the design phase. The length of that stage can vary from a couple of days to a few weeks, and you don’t want it to hold up progress on getting your doors open to carry out your business. The ins and outs of design can be unpredictable, so it is in your best interest as a business owner to start the process as soon as you can.

The big hurdle is that your design has to be approved. That approval can come from different people. Your insurance company may have special requirements that need to be covered in the design, so it will have to take a look. Your local fire department certainly has requirements and will want to review it for compliance. And the state in which you live will have its own approval procedures.

After the design has been approved, Brenneco prefabricates all of the necessary piping so that our technicians’ time spent onsite is focused on installation. We want to be as prepared as possible before stepping foot on your property. Sometimes the prefabrication process can begin before an approval is secured; again, it just depends. Prefabrication usually takes 1-2 weeks, depending on the complexity of the job. Projects that include fire pumps can take 6-8 weeks.

When working with Brenneco or your fire protection service provider, share information early and often so that no stone is left unturned in your sprinkler system project.

Costs related to sprinkler system design depend on a number of factors, several of which a building owner should know about before getting in too deep. Here are four questions to ask yourself before you begin a design project with your fire protection service provider to help you better manage and understand where the time and money are going.

1. Are existing drawings available? If a footprint in the form of blueprints or plans for your facility exists, be sure to share it with the designer. This will help keep the designer from having to go into your facility to measure everything. If you are building new construction, be sure to share those plans with your fire protection service provider as soon as they are available.

2. What kind of facility am I dealing with? If you have a warehouse that needs a fire sprinkler system, the design will typically be simpler than a structure with more bells, whistles, twists and turns — like an industrial manufacturing facility with lots of rooms and lots of different functions.

3. What are the functions of my space? What you want to do in your space makes a big difference when it comes to design. If you’re welding materials or producing paint, your needs will be different from a typical office space. Be sure to tell your designer not only the functions you intend to carry out in the short term, but also any functions you intend to carry out if your business changes. Storage of particular products in a warehouse or what happens in one part of a manufacturing facility may evolve in five to 10 years; that should be considered in your design. Planning the future by installing more technical equipment will affect your expenses, so be sure you compare costs.

4. Who is involved in design? You want to know who’s in charge and who’s doing what. The State of Indiana requires that a person who is NICET Level III certified or above to create a fire sprinkler system design. The design also often involves engineers and architects. If you have concerns about who is responsible for parts of your design, ask your fire protection service provider. If they aren’t answering your questions, contact Brenneco.

Several factors affect how long a design project will take. During our initial talks with a contractor or business owner, we will ask questions to help us give them a close estimate. We will determine the scope of the project and its complexity. We will ask for any available resources to help us along, such as existing drawings or floor plans. The design of a building typically guides how a building’s fire protection system is designed, but not always. Analyzing existing plans are vital to the design process.

The building’s purpose is also important to consider. How you protect an office building is different from how you protect a warehouse stacked high with flammable materials. We will also heed any particular preferences provided by the business owner or requirements of the insurance carrier. Once a design has been created, Brenneco submits it to the Indiana Department of Homeland Security for review and approval.

The best thing a business owner can do to ensure his or her fire protection service provider’s design time estimate will be accurate is to give them information. Floor plans, insurance requirements, building functions — all of these things should play a role in your provider’s design time estimate.

At Brenneco, we never want to get in the way of progress, so we are as upfront and helpful as possible when estimating time. If you have any questions, please call me.

Now that is what you call corrosion.

Leaks are the most common reason we at Brenneco Fire Protection get calls for repairs. You can’t always prevent them from happening, but often you can work and act smarter to keep them to a minimum in your facility. Here are the top 5 reasons you may be getting leaks in your sprinkler system piping.

1. Bad batch of pipe. When moisture and metal mix, corrosion happens. Every case is a little different due to water quality, temperature differences and other factors, but rusty pipes that corrode are a very common source of leaks. Chemical injection systems are available to treat systems and minimize the chances of leaks. Talk to your fire protection service provider about the effectiveness of these if you seem to have more leaks than usual.

2. Fork trucks. People seem to lose their brains when they are behind the wheel of a fork truck. We often get calls about sprinkler heads being knocked off and sprinkler risers being damaged due to poor fork truck driving. In residential construction, the user error is more often stray nails or screws accidentally pierced into CPVC piping.

3. Loose fittings. If a fitting isn’t tightened well or glued securely, a leak will eventually occur. It might hold for a while without you seeing water, but eventually you will have a leak.

4. Freezing temperatures. When water freezes, it expands. What typically happens in a fire sprinkler system is some areas freeze and when additional water freezes around that area, causing fittings or heads to break, or pipe to splits. Two things can help you prevent freezing issues. If you have a wet system, make sure you’re maintaining 40 degrees around the piping. If you have a dry system, make sure all of the piping slopes properly so any water or condensation can run back to a drain.

5. Lack of maintenance. With dry systems in particular, a lack of maintenance can lead to leaks. Staying on top of your inspections helps you find and fix leaks or replace bad pipe before these things become costly surprises.

No one wants to be stunned silly or at the least interrupted by a false alarm. We have jobs to do! Components of fire sprinkler systems are often tied into alarm systems that are an integral part of your comprehensive fire protection system. When our technicians are inspecting sprinkler systems, they are often asked if our inspection will set off an alarm.

Depending on the facility, fire alarms may be an issue. We have to be sure the flow switch on a sprinkler system is communicating with the alarm panel, and this often triggers the alarm. From the sprinkler system perspective, our alarms are activated when water starts to flow. There are also some supervisory alarms that are connected to valves. You may receive a trouble signal if the valves show signs of problems.

If an alarm is going to sound, it will typically go off a few times for a few seconds and that will be that. In some systems, it is possible that the switch can be checked without setting off the alarm.

Brenneco is careful to notify the appropriate people if an alarm will sound. Someone is always monitoring the alarm system, so we simply contact that person, who is often associated with a security service or police department, to let him or her know that the big red truck doesn’t need to be sent.

If your business hasn’t had a fire drill in a while, the alarm sound is a great opportunity to be sure your employees know where to go in case of a real alarm.

Happy New Year!

Mike Roush is the Facilities Director for The City of Lafayette and proud to have his hard work and dedication to safety recognized.  He started working for The City a little more than a year ago, and appreciates everything that Brenneco has taught him about fire safety and inspections.

“I was really excited to win the award, but more excited for my employees. They are the ones who have worked hard and with the help of Brenneco, put this department on the right track. When I first came on I didn’t know a lot about inspections and all the types we had to do,” said Roush. “But Brenneco always responds whenever I need help. I like to think of The City as a business and we can only service our customers when we run properly.”

Brenneco has worked with The City of Lafayette since 2004 and services 20 of the city’s buildings including Lafayette City Hall, all fire houses and the Long Center for the Performing Arts.  Some of Brenneco’s services and installations include inspections, fire panels, extinguishers, backflow devices and sprinklers.

You add antifreeze to your car’s radiator to prepare it for winter, but what about your fire sprinkler system? Freezing pipes are a common problem here in Indiana. If the water in your sprinkler system freezes, not only can it lead to leaking pipes, but it can also prevent the system from functioning properly in case of a fire.

Clients often ask if adding antifreeze to their systems is a good idea. Antifreeze systems are useful in some cases. Typically, they are used in parts of a larger wet system. Common places where an antifreeze system might be in place include a loading dock or one unheated room in a building.

Antifreeze can be tricky. In a few cases where antifreeze systems were under very high pressure, a fire caused the antifreeze solution to vaporize and trigger an explosion. While this sort of reaction is highly unlikely, the NFPA now advises that you use premixed antifreeze solutions from the factory. The problem with these solution is that they will only protect you down to 10 or 20 degrees below freezing. If the mercury falls below that, your pipes may freeze. When we at Brenneco are working with clients who have unheated areas, we are sure to provide them with all the information so they can decide what is best for their situation.

The only failsafe solution to freezing pipes is a dry system. If a larger area is susceptible to freezing, then a dry system would be installed instead of a wet one filled with water. In this type of fire sprinkler system, air (not water) fills the pipes until a sprinkler head is triggered. Obviously, there is no chance of freezing pipes. Dry systems, though, are more expensive than wet and antifreeze systems.

If you have a fire and antifreeze solution comes raining down on your space, you don’t need to worry about any ill effects. These solutions are food-grade glycol-based solutions, so they are no more harmful than water is.

Antifreeze systems do incur extra installation costs and can require an extra backflow device. In addition, you may need an expansion tank to accommodate pressure surges in the system. These are tested annually to verify that they can handle cold temperatures. The lifespan of your antifreeze varies depending on how system is set up. It may be replaced annually or every 10 years. You should trust your fire protection service provider to let you know what is best. Let us know if you have any questions about this fire protection topic or any other.