When I was six years old, I came home from school unexpectedly excited one day. I ran up our driveway, pushed wide the door and yelled to my mom. “You won’t believe it! There’s this place at school where you can go through shelves and shelves of books and pick out anyone you want – and it’s free! They call it a library.” It wasn’t one of my mom’s proudest parenting moments, but in our house, we never pretended to be great readers… or apparently even pretended to introduce kids to a library. I guess I’ll just come out and say it… Both of my parents are accountants. Now, I know what you’re thinking, and yes, the accountants are where my well-rounded sense of humor comes from. But there’s another big benefit to having parents as accountants – and it’s having a love for spreadsheets. I’m not sure if little excel formulas naturally run through my veins or whether it was every family calendar my parents ever created, but one way or another I thoroughly appreciate the power a spreadsheet has. Even if your parents are not both CPAs, there’s a place for Microsoft Excel in your engineering life. Excel isn't just made for your uncle accountant anymore - there's potential any engineer can love. For one, Microsoft Excel is not called the “Swiss Army Knife of Software” for naught. Excel is a blank canvas for any calculation you need to make. You can quickly create and repeat repetitive calculations to speed up and organize your workflow. You can complete reports, forms, create charts, tables, organize content, or use any of a myriad of highly powerful tools. Here are a few of my most often used formulas:
That’s pretty much all of my secret sauce. About 95% of the tools created combine those formulas alongside mathematical operators (like max(), min(), sin(), sqrt(), etc.). One of the best parts about using Excel is that you may already have access to it. If your company has a Microsoft Office suite (or what’s now their subscription model with Office 365), you already have access to these tools. Creating helpful resources is what we’re all about, and Excel is the epitome of giving you, the rockstar designer or engineer, the ability to create and flourish with the tools you need. You didn’t get into the industry to do poor, sloppy work. You came here to help save lives. We shouldn’t have to wait for programmers to create the daily tools we need to do great work. Excel is one way you can organize and validate the great work you do. There came a point near the end of my undergraduate work and at the beginning of graduate school where I realized I needed to create a clean, organized method to show details within calculations. The method I slowly developed needed a single logic path, had to be easy to follow, would thoroughly explain the process, and had to allow the easy repetition of the work. What’s resulted is the standard format that’s used in the PE Prep Guide and on many of the tools you’ll see around this site. Concepts are researched, painstakingly created, tested, refined, tested, refined, beta tested, and refined more. Standard formatting for MeyerFire tools - note the equations and worked examples with references cited. If you’ve followed the blog for a while, you already know the blog, daily forum, and even the PE prep materials are all created to help foster discussion that leads to shared expertise and knowledge. Outside of a few major players and organizations, the fire protection industry is comprised of thousands of thousands of small outfits that welcome this shared expertise. Our industry thrives on the contributions from a wide spread of individual parties. Don’t let me or anyone else douse your enthusiasm to create resources that improve your ability to impact the industry. Keep on keepin’ on. Oh and remember to take your kids to the library.
Looking for an opportunity to turn a basic concept into a controversial one on a project? Great! This week I'm exploring the quick-response remote area reduction that's provided in NFPA 13.
Suppress Early, Suppress Less The concept behind reducing the calculated hydraulically remote area in a fire sprinkler system is entirely based on fighting a smaller fire earlier in the development of the fire. There's a handful of factors that contribute to the timing of sprinkler response (a good future discussion), which include the thermal sensitivity, sprinkler temperature rating, distance of sprinklers relative to the ceiling, sprinkler spacing, ceiling height, and dynamics of the fire itself. The reduction in the hydraulically remote area is based upon comparative tests of quick-response against standard-response spray sprinklers. According to the NFPA 13 handbook, the tests demonstrated that the earlier the water is applied to the fire, the smaller the fire and ultimately the less number of sprinklers needed to activate. Not Universally Accepted While the remote area reduction has been included in NFPA 13 for years, it's not universally accepted. Many engineer specifications don't allow the reduction, and design standards for major organizations such as the Department of Defense (UFC 3-600-01) don't permit it either. Why not accept the remote area reduction, if NFPA 13 includes it? Like other elements in hydraulic design for fire sprinkler systems, not using the remote area reduction provides an additional safety factor to the system. Additionally, since the quantity of sprinklers relates to the quantity of water flowing in the system, main sizes are directly impacted by using or not using the quick response area reduction. Building owners may opt to not want to reduce the remote area to preserve reasonable (larger) main sizes and give themselves flexibility on building modifications and sprinkler system changes in the future. Quick-Response Area Reduction Calculator This quick calculator is in part a checklist of prerequisites to reduce the remote area on a fire sprinkler system, in part a method of showing your work, and in part a quick calculator on determining your final remote area size. Don't see it below? Give it a try here. This site is all about helping you shine in fire protection. Want these weekly tools & articles? Subscribe here, for free. A little earlier than this time last year I wrote an article covering how NFPA 13 addresses sprinkler protection underneath canopies, overhangs, and exterior projections on buildings. It ended up as one of my favorites and I've had good feedback on it as well. With the big changes in re-organization to the 2019 Edition of NFPA 13, it is only appropriate to make a few updates to the flowchart and get it in your hands so you can do what you do best. Here's a link to the original article in full. If you haven't read it, it might be worth a few minutes here: Sprinkler protection for canopies & overhangs are an important part of the overall protection scheme for a building. If you know someone who might find this useful, please send this to them and let them know they can subscribe to these free weekly tools & resources here.
I've heard from a handful of people to be sure to explore topics other than just fire suppression. I agree! There will be plenty more to come. It only seems appropriate after discussing the fire suppression cheatsheet and the code call cheatsheet in the last few weeks to also compile the latest cheatsheet I have for fire alarm design. Here's a blank cheatsheet and an example: If you're already using the Toolkit this is now available for download with today's update. Just log in here to get it. Along with having all of your design decisions documented for a project (or flagging the open items still left to figure out), perhaps the most important piece is how quickly you're now able to record your notes. If you don't see the video recording below, click here for a YouTube video of how quick notes can be recorded. Share MeyerFire was created to help you shine in fire protection. Know someone who might be interested in these tools or articles? Email a friend with a link today. Thanks for being a part of the effort towards better fire protection! Unless you're tuned in as an AHJ yourself, you've likely made a few "code calls" to a code authority and asked a litany of questions to make sure your project's design meets the local requirements. I'm not even sure if the term "code call" is a common term, but I've heard it enough that I suspect you already know what I'm talking about regardless of where you call home. I enjoy this process now, but I didn't always. Fresh out of school I'm pretty sure I was visibly shaking the time I first made a code call. I was sure that within seconds my cover would be blown and it would be all too obvious that I had no idea what I was talking about. Despite my awkwardness (I make a good engineer, right??) nothing went sour and since then I've slowly learned and repeated many many times. There was even one of my favorite code calls that I made about an elementary school to coordinate local fire alarm requirements. It was only right after the call late on a Friday afternoon that I found out that the fire marshal I just spoke with was hired onto our team and was starting the following Monday. They say fire protection is a small world, right? He turned out to be one of the most knowledgeable people I know and one of my favorite people to work alongside. The Joys & Pains of Code Calls Code calls also come in many different flavors. Sometimes I'm just shocked by how friendly and helpful code authorities are. I once made a call at 15 minutes till 5pm on a Friday to a small town in Arkansas, thinking I would just leave a voicemail. After my questions, I asked if the department conducted flow tests, and while he said they did, he apologized that because of a prior commitment he couldn't do it then but would be happy to do it first thing Monday morning. I almost fell out of my chair. Very helpful and caring people in this field. On the contrary, sometimes the hardest part about a code call is just finding the right person to speak with who is actually responsible for plan review of fire protection systems and getting a few minutes of their time. Not to pick on New York City because I love the people there and speak with a handful of you regularly, but if you're trying to get a hold of someone to verify or coordinate a few particulars of your system... well... good luck! Maybe it's because they knew I can't stand the Yankees. I also sometimes get AHJs who simply say all they do is 'per code' and they aren't interested in talking specifics. The whole point of the call is filling in the gaps where a code or standard does not direct but rather defers decisions to the AHJ. Want a siamese fire department connection with national thread, or a Storz-type? Either way is code compliant. As an engineer I can make either way work. Is a wall-mounted FDC permissible, or does it need to be freestanding? Either location is compliant, but NFPA 13 says the location needs to be coordinated with the AHJ. The Cheatsheet What I've gathered and refined over hundreds of code calls is my cheatsheet I currently use today. Just like the design cheatsheet, if you're using the Toolkit you can quickly highlight categories for your record keeping. What's even better about this tool, though, is that you can quickly fill in the content (while on the call) and then right after save as a PDF and email to the AHJ themselves. Want them to have a record of the call and a quick way to verify your notes? Great! You now have a logged code call and the AHJ has an opportunity to review your notes. The process of calling, taking notes, and composing the email used to take close to an hour total. This tool alone brings that total time to about 15-20 minutes. That's three-quarters of an hour you could save on every job you make the call! A Radical Big-Picture Concept One of my longer big-picture ideas to help the industry is to beta test and, if successful, open up a larger code-call database. I envision this as a database that brings designers and code authorities together to make local requirements clear and help jurisdictions get installations that reflect their preferences and mandates. Want to know what hydraulic safety factor is required for sprinkler systems in Springfield, Illinois? Great - a quick query in the database reveals that and a clean list of other local requirements. Want to know what type and location for FDC's that Tucson, Arizona requires? Great, we'd have that too. This would clearly have a huge value for designers and engineers - but what I'm really curious about is how to incentivize code authorities to take the survey or help us populate the database. If you're an AHJ, email me (jdmeyer@meyerfire.com) or comment below about whether you'd be open to the idea of making your local requirements public in a database. I would have to think that AHJ input would only help local authorities get installations that match their needs - but I also know that getting action out of anyone is only possible with mutual benefit and sometimes incentives. Just like the Design Cheatsheet posted a couple weeks ago, this form is integrated into the updated version of the MeyerFire Toolkit ready for download today. Below is a blank and filled-in template.
If you're already a Toolkit user, you can download the code call cheatsheet today by logging in here. If you're not using the Toolkit, you might consider joining in on what's quickly becoming what some consider the best tool for fire sprinkler design under $200. See more about it here. The Questions on My List The current code call checklist I use today has had items added and scratched over years of finding out what's important and what questions always get the same answers. That being said, there's no real one defined list that matches everyone's preferences. What questions do you ask that you feel are important to the design that's not explicit in code? Comment below. Join the Cause Our line of work in helping save lives and property is extremely important, but you already know that. This site is built to help you excel in fire protection. If you're not already subscribed to these free weekly resources & articles, you can do so here for free. Determining fire flow can be a tricky subject. This week I'm breaking down one common method of determining fire flow requirements and hopefully exposing some myths about the process. Not an Exact Science First, determining the exact amount of water required to manually suppress a fire is dependent upon so many variables. The amount of water used could depend on the building size, hazard, outdoor conditions, speed of fire growth, fire department response time, whether the building is protected by sprinklers, and on and on. The methods used to calculate fire flow are different methods at estimating the amount of water required to manually suppress a fire. It is not an exact science. What is Fire Flow? I'll start by what fire flow is not. Fire Flow is not the volume of water required for the fire sprinkler system. I couldn't count the number of projects where Fire Flow has been assumed to be sprinkler-related. Fire Flow is formally defined as the "flow rate of a water supply, measured at 20 psi (138 kPa), that is available for fire fighting." (IFC 200-2018 Appendix B Section B102) Fire flow is used to determine the quality of a water supply to an area. It's used as an aid to determine pipe size and arrangements to delivery water to a specific area.
What Project? When I first started in the industry I worked on a long line of high-end retail projects scattered across the United States. Six months after starting I got a question from a project manager about concealed space wood-structure sprinkler protection on a particular store in San Jose. San Jose? I was positive I never worked on a project in San Jose. A little digging later revealed I did in fact work on a small retail shop in San Jose. The only problem was that it looked just like the other 30 stores I had worked on in-between. Did I evaluate protection or even consider the combustible above-ceiling space? Did I discuss anything with the AHJ? No idea. I quickly realized that if I didn't take project-specific design notes I'd have no way of revisiting my thought process when a question inevitably arose later in the project. The Mad Man Ever since then, and not entirely due to my undiagnosed organization issues, I've been on a mad hunt to find the best way to record project notes in the cleanest and most insanely-quick process possible. For me it's partially about recording the design thought process, and partially about reminding myself about all the considerations that need to occur for a project. I can't say I've tried every method for project note taking, but I have used word templates, checklists, spreadsheets, OneNote files, linked databases, access databases, and the good old pen and paper. Important Pieces I have several goals when devising project notes for me and the staff I work with:
An example project design sheet (click to see full PDF) Latest Rendition Here's where I am now - an excel-based, single page note page where a quick "X" above a cell highlights the one below. If I know all of the information in a project, it can be filled out completely in less than 3 minutes. It can be a helpful accompaniment for sprinkler contractor clients when we're submitting a bid, or helpful notes to accompany a QC set of drawings. What Am I Missing? I'm sure your checklists and cheatsheets include a wide variety of considerations. In my attempt to better this one and incorporate the whole spreadsheet, what important elements am I missing? View PDFs below, and post your comments & feedback about important things to add here. Subscribe Find these conversations interesting? Forward to a friend or subscribe to these weekly posts here. If you've been following the blog for awhile, you might already know about the Toolkit that has really taken off lately. This past week I've incorporated some (great) user feedback and now have a new version to present: I've revamped the organization and it's FAR easier to navigate and use now. With a new main menu and crisp pages the Toolkit is FAR easier to navigate. Now you can get what you need, quickly. If you're already a subscriber to the Toolkit, use the download link below to get the latest version right now. No need for any new access codes - it just updates the Toolkit right over your current version. A clip of the latest version of the Sprinkler Obstruction Calculator on the MeyerFire Toolkit. What is the Toolkit, and what does it include? The MeyerFire Toolkit is a downloadable series of excel-based tools that allow fire protection designers, engineers and code authorities to quickly calculate a myriad of regular applications. With this tool you can save time with quick but powerful tools that you can save, PDF, or print. The Toolkit contains all of the tools you see on this website - plus the popular Fire Sprinkler Database - which is a live collection of all fire sprinklers on the market where you can sort and filter to see what products exist for your application, and then specify or design the ones that best match your design goals. What's Next?
There's a few new additions to the Toolkit I hope to debut in the next couple weeks based on suggestions from users just like you. If you're an expert in fire flow calculations or water storage tank design and are interested in early testing, email me at jdmeyer@meyerfire.com. Subscribe If you know someone who might be interested in giving the Toolkit a try, email them about downloading it today. As always, you can subscribe to these weekly articles & resources here. First - thank you for such a warm response to last week's article on a major and thorny topic of using sprinklers alongside glazing in rated assemblies. I genuinely appreciate and am motivated by so many thoughtful people in our industry. As I mentioned last week, below is a link to the original article with the new PDF summary. It compares rated window assemblies, use of closely-spaced sprinklers for atrium enclosures, and the use of window sprinklers across many important categories. If you find this useful, please consider sharing with others who also may be interested in the content. If you're not already subscribed, you can get this and many other similar resources for fire protection design, inspection, review, & engineering by subscribing, for free, here. Thanks & have a great weekend! I've been told that memorizing the ANSI and ARCH drawing sizes along with architectural scales & their scale factors is a part of the first day of any drafting program. I've also been told that anyone who drafts regularly should undoubtedly have the standard sheet sizes and scale factors for different architectural scales memorized. Consider me the dumb exception who never learned how to draft. Despite being told I have a large head (I think they're talking about my physically awkward-sized head and not my bloated ego), I can't seem to allocate much space in there to remember the essentials of life like knowing that ANSI D translates to a 22 x 34 sheet size. And for that, I've created a drafting cheatsheet - Normally only important images get a caption below it, but in this case even a very basic table that just shows architectural scales and names for drawing sheet sizes gets a caption too. What a day. Now, if you're from a part of the planet that uses an intuitive, logical, consensus-driven, and straightforward method of measuring using the SI system, then you can largely ignore the above tool and write us English-traditionalists off as keeping our head buried in the sand. Despite even the original developers of the English system of measurement overhauling their system twice (the British adapted to the imperial system in 1824 and the metric system in the 1960s) and ditching the foot-pound world, us westerners just can't seem to let some things go. This shouldn't be the sword I choose to fall on, so I'll leave the dead horse for someone else to beat. For those who use the "US Customary Units of Measure" and also can't seem to recall how to scale a 3/32" = 1'-0" background properly (it's a scale factor of 128), this cheatsheet is for you too. Interested in getting more weekly tools & articles like this? Subscribe, for free, here. |
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+ Unsubscribe anytime AUTHORJoe Meyer, PE, is a Fire Protection Engineer out of St. Louis, Missouri who writes & develops resources for Fire Protection Professionals. See bio here: About FILTERS
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