Automatic Fire Sprinklers

Automatic fire sprinklers are the most effective protection against fire.  Their operation is conceptually simple.   A fire starts somewhere in the protected building causing the sprinkler heads immediately above the fire to operate.  Water is discharged from the operating sprinkler heads controlling the fire.

Did you know that:

• Not every sprinkler head operates.  Statistically 65% of fires are controlled by the operation of a single sprinkler head.  95% of fires are controlled by five sprinkler heads of less.
• Sprinklers are on guard 24 hours a day, seven days a week to protect you and your property from fire.
• Sprinklers automatically call the fire brigade in the event of a fire.
• Sprinklers save lives.  Since 1996 only six fire related deaths have occurred in New Zealand where sprinklers were installed, and in each case the victims were in intimate contact with the fire.
• Sprinklers use less water and cause less wet-down damage than manual fire fighting.  You can restore wet documents and equipment but you cannot restore ashes or life.
• Sprinklers are extremely reliable.  History shows us that the simply do not activate by themselves.
• In New Zealand automatic fire sprinklers are considered to be better than 99% effective (the most effective fire performance record of any systems in the world).
• The cost of sprinkler protection is less than the cost of floor coverings for the life of a building.  Effective sprinkler protection should give you leverage in reducing insurance premiums and ease building code compliance.  But more importantly they will protect your property and people from fire. 

Standards

The relevant Standards for installation of automatic fire sprinklers in New Zealand are:

NZS 4541 - Automatic Fire Sprinkler Systems. This standard has been written to provide the basis of installation of sprinklers in to the majority of New Zealand's commercial buildings. The standard has been proven to be one of the most reliable sprinkler standards in the world, while allowing some of the most cost effective sprinkler systems in the world. This is in part to the industry's self-regulation in combination with the maintenance provisions incorporated in to the Building Act 1992.

NZS 4515 - Fire Sprinkler Systems for Residential Occupancies. This standard can be used to protect smaller buildings used primarily for residential premises. Its scope is limited to residential buildings of less than 2000m2, and of four floors. Typically, this standard is used for small apartment complexes, aged care homes and private hospitals.

NZS 4517 - Fire Sprinkler Systems for Houses. This is the newest standard for fire sprinkler systems, and has been written to allow cost effective sprinklers to be installed in private houses. It is not intended for the specification of sprinklers in commercially operated premises, such as boarding houses and the like. The standard has been written to allow trained plumbers to install sprinklers in new houses, or for suitably qualified plumbers or sprinkler contractors to retrofit sprinklers in to existing houses.

These fire protection Standards form part of the acceptable solutions to the Compliance Documents to the New Zealand Building Code.

The Fire Protection Association, in cooperation with many other interested parties is committed to ensuring that the voluntary self-certification system that is in operation in New Zealand is retained and allows existing levels of confidence in sprinkler systems to be retained.  Automatic sprinkler protection should be designed and installed by qualified practitioners and subject to third party independent inspection and certification.  Once a system is installed it should be tested and maintained in accordance with the requirements of the relevant Standard. 

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