We've rounded out another year of Fire Protection PE Exam Prep - and with that around here we're turning our attention to the next edition of the PE Prep Guide, which will be the 2023 Edition that will debut early next year. That said - we have limited copies of the old 2020 Edition that I'm told is no longer allowed to be stored on the premises. They must go! (Imagine the old cheesy car dealership commercials pleading that they have to get rid of cars to make room for new ones, that pretty much sums it up here) FLASH SALE Until they're all sold, the old 2020 PE Prep Guides are only $50 + shipping. If you've wanted a reference book of key formulas explained with over 200 worked examples matching the older Fire Protection PE Exams? Maybe a nice reference book for the shelf? Maybe an early start to get an idea of what the PE Exam has in it for some years down the road? Here's a great time to pick up a copy. Again, this sale is only good while we still have copies available (and we only have limited copies), and is only good for the 2020 Edition. We unfortunately will not be reprinting or adding more books to this sale. Once they're sold, the sale is done.
NEXT (2023) EDITION With some tweaks to the NCEES references and some additional questions and updates to the book, we are looking to complete a new 2023 Edition of the PE Prep Guide. In the interim, we do still also have copies of the 2021 Edition available and hope to still over those through the rest of this year. We ran an open-ended study about the why and how fire protection professionals get into the industry and the roles they are currently in. This is our fourth dive into that data. In the upcoming week or two we’ll summarize and offer tips for business owners, recruiters, and HR professionals on where to look for future talent and how best to “make the pitch”. WHY EXPLORE THIS For one, we need more talent in the industry. More quality people mean better overall advocacy for the industry. We will never be recognized at a major discipline if there are far too few people to speak up for fire protection, much less if there’s hardly anyone to do the work. So then, if we’re actively looking for help and looking to spot future potential – how do we “make that pitch?” WHAT'S THE ALLURE TO THE INDUSTRY What should we celebrate about the industry to people that don’t know about it? Well, like we explored before, the best way to answer that is looking backwards at why we got into the industry in the first place. We asked - as an open-ended question – why did you go into fire protection? THE RESPONSE We received 297 unique responses to this question. Many cited multiple reasons for entering the field. In total, we received 655 cited reasons why our group of 297 people entered the industry. Now before we get to the full breakout, I’d like to offer a few special shout outs to unique reasons why some people got into the fire protection field. Here are a few of the favorites and important ones as well: I went into fire protection because... ... of the TV Show “Emergency”. ... I wanted “to put the fire department out of business.” ...“of the beautiful receptionist at the company, whom I later dated.” ... “I visited an engineering firm and the engineers bored me to death. I didn’t want to go down that road so I checked into fire protection.” ... “after I broke up with the bosses daughter, I figured it was in my best interest to find other employment.” That’s why I got into fire protection. Aside from unique causes, there are more noble ones that became a theme: “I wanted to contribute to safety for the people I was really passionate about, the elderly and kids.” “It was very interesting and is beneficial to society.” “I wanted to feel good about the work I did.” “Wanted to make a difference.” “I saw it as the way to make the greatest impact and least harm among other engineering disciplines.” “I wanted a career that matters.” There were plenty of ‘nerdy’ responses (I say this being a part of that crowd): “I enjoyed hydraulic calculations.” There were reasons related to people in the industry: “FPE students had a spirit of cooperation that was nonexistent in electrical engineering.” “The family, community spirit” of the industry. There were also tragic reasons: “When I was 8-years old the house down from us burned down and a great family lost their home.” “Lost a brother and father to fire-related deaths.” “Our house burned down.” THIRTY REASONS In all, we could generally categorize each response in one of thirty categories. Many responses cited multiple reasons, so we categorized those under both. Here are the top 15 reasons why people went into fire protection, broken down by the different industries. ARCHITECTURAL & ENGINEERING 143 Responses; 229 reasons "why" they went into fire protection. Top 15 Reasons Why Professionals in Architectural and/or Engineering Firms Went into Fire Protection:
CONTRACTORS 178 Responses; 238 reasons. Top 15 Reasons Why Professionals in Contracting Went into Fire Protection:
If you recall back to the first couple parts of this study, you can see the influence of family (24%), friends (19%) as reasons people first heard about fire protection. If that’s a big contributor for awareness of the industry, then it would also jive that many in contracting got into the industry because of these same influences. "Because of Family" ranked as the #6 reasons why those in contracting got into fire protection, which didn't show up at all in Architectural and/or Engineering firm circles. AHJ & GOVERNMENT 64 respondents, 178 reasons. Top 15 Reasons Why AHJ & Government Roles Went into Fire Protection:
TAKEAWAYS
#1 Wide-Range of Responses I think my favorite part of combing through this was seeing the variety of reasons why people went into fire protection. I would have guessed that the reasoning could have been categorized in maybe five or six reasons, but it's much more nuanced than that. In reading through responses, things like "the challenge" versus "learning something new" and "sounded interesting" are very much in the same vein, or similar source, but they're different and a little more nuanced than that. Things like "job security" and "job stability" can be tied together, they're very related, but many people cited how the industry is "unique", "niche", and "specialized". That's different than saying the industry is "diverse" or "has a wide range of work". What were the others reasons that didn't crack the Top 15 lists? They were:
#2 Many Motivators Other than Money To be honest, I thought career potential, salary and benefits would rank a whole lot higher than they have. Job benefits didn't crack the Top 15 reasons for any group, and Money / Pay only ever reached as high as Reason #5 why people entered fire protection. I would have guessed it to rank much higher. #3 Think about "The Pitch" Think about the opportunity you might have to talk to someone new about going into fire protection. What 'angle' do you take? What reasons resonate for you? Do those reasons match up with the majority? If you're looking to craft your reasoning why someone should hop into fire protection - wherever that happens to be - consider first where you are (what type of organization you're in), and then check out the top reasons. Chances are if you can quickly cite those top three-to-five reasons why people go into fire protection, then you may have that 'hook' that helps your case. I hope this has been interesting. Feel free to shoot me an email or comment below with your own thoughts & takeaways. - Joe One thing I hear as soon as I introduce my role as "Fire Protection Engineer", all the time, is "wow you're a rare bird." Not sure if it's a compliment or not. To be fair they don't always say "bird", sometime's it's "duck" or "unique" or "oddball", but the sentiment is the same. Fire Protection pros (engineers, designers, project managers, estimators, plan reviewers, inspectors) - we're all rare birds. That acknowledged - where do we look for more help? If we need help, and we're ready to train new hires, where do we even look? For larger organizations, this may be well charted. We know X and Y school has related programs, so we go there. Or we know Z technical college has good students, so we go there. Or we badger our employees to always be thinking about hiring their friends or family. Whatever works. But one of the key questions I kept coming back to in this space was - if most of us don't start in fire protection - which we now have some data to back up that notion - then where do we come from? If we're looking for new hires to train up - where are they? Last week we looked at the industries that fire protection professionals started in, and we broke those out by their current organization type. This week we're looking at that same period in the career - when we first started in fire protection - and are looking at what education we had at that time. Many studies about the fire protection industry look for current education status - do you have a fire protection degree? High school? Associates? Bachelors? Masters? But that doesn't tell us very much. When someone is in the industry for five years and goes to get a Master's in Fire Protection, well, they're already in the industry. If we're looking to recruit new people to the industry, knowing that someone has a Master's in Fire Protection, and they got it after they were already in the industry, well that's not helpful. So here, in this question from our study, we asked specifically what education each person had when they first entered the fire protection industry. And here are those results: ARCHITECTURAL & ENGINEERING SPACE For those working in Architecture & Engineering (143 applicable responses): CONTRACTING SPACE For those working in Contracting (178 responses): DESIGNERS / ENGINEERING TECHNICIANS SPECIFICALLY This breaks down individuals who are working as designers or engineering technicians (119 response): ENGINEERS SPECIFICALLY This breaks down individuals who are working as "fire/life safety consultants", "fire protection specialists", or "fire protection engineers" (162 response): OTHER ROLES
For other roles, such as project managers, estimators, fire marshals, inspectors, investigators, plan reviewers, and others, there wasn't enough data to give us a good idea for education trends (such as less than 50 respondents). That said, if there's a role or component of the data you'd want to see - comment below and we'll see if we can make it happen. TAKEAWAY #1: GET ENGINEERS FROM MECHANICAL ENGINEERING PROGRAMS Perhaps my biggest takeaway on this, which may have been obvious to others but hasn't been to me, is that if you're looking to hire someone to get into fire protection engineering - go mine the local Mechanical Engineering program! Someone working in our industry is 4x more likely to have a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering than they are to have a Bachelors in Fire Protection Engineering. To me, that says a lot. Put up posters, go to career fairs, go guest lecture, go talk to ASME (Society of American Mechanical Engineers) or student organizations about fire protection - whatever it takes to make in-roads so that you can hire a few down the road. TAKEAWAY #2: DESIGNERS COME FROM A VARIETY OF EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUNDS There is a sizeable contingent of those who are currently in designer / engineering technician roles who had engineering degrees when they first started; that's somewhere around 20% of designers. But there's also a large contingent of current designers who started with no college degree (49%) or an associate/technical school (around 20%). Designers and engineering technicians don't come from a unified pathway; they come from all over. We saw that last week in the industry where people first started, and we'll see that again when we explore "why" people get into fire protection. NEXT UP In the next part of our series we'll look at why people get into the fire protection industry, and I think you'll enjoy those responses just as much as I have. Thanks and have a great rest of your week! - Joe Where do fire protection professionals come from? This is a follow-up to the first article in this series where we are discussing takeaways from our industry sourcing survey. What do we hope to answer?
Last week we answered #1, today, we’re covering where people actually come from. I’ll break this out again by the source (A/E, Contracting, AHJ/Gov’t, and Insurance/Manufacturing/Users) as it perhaps is the best way to get suggestions for future recruiting. SO, WHERE WAS OUR FIRST "REAL" JOB? ARCHITECTURAL & ENGINEERING SPACE For Architecture & Engineering (139 applicable responses): CONTRACTING SPACE For Contractors (178 responses): AUTHORITIES HAVING JURISDICTION / GOVERNMENT For those in government and AHJ roles (64 responses): TAKEAWAYS What do you find interesting? What takeaways do you see in the data? Personally, here's what I found interesting or surprising about these notes: SO MUCH OF THE INDUSTRY DOESN'T "START" IN FIRE PROTECTION We mentioned this last week, but anecdotally it seems as though many people in the industry didn't exactly 'intend' to end up in fire protection. The data from our survey seems to suggest the same consistently throughout the different user groups. OF THESE FIELDS, CONTRACTORS HAVE THE MOST PEOPLE WHO "STARTED" IN FIRE PROTECTION We'll dive deeper into this later on, but so many in contracting get in "because" of friends and family that it would make sense that their first "real" job is directly in the fire protection industry. That said, there's still just as many people even in contracting that didn't first start out in fire protection as people who did. I would imagine the same wouldn't be said for fields like architecture, structural engineering or mechanical engineering. HOW FEW PEOPLE IN AHJ/GOVERNMENT ROLES STARTED IN FIRE PROTECTION Personally, I was very surprised at how few people in AHJ and Government roles actually started in fire protection from the survey. This is also our most limited data set, so I can't take away too many conclusions from that subset. HOW BIG OF AN INFLUENCE MECHANICAL ENGINEERING HAS ON FIRE PROTECTION Traditionally, fire suppression has been a "subset" of mechanical engineering. This can be seen in the way project specification divisions used to be arranged, or how many mechanical engineers have traditionally specified fire suppression systems. All of fire protection isn't just in fire sprinklers, of course, but the data we get continues to say that of people who didn't start in fire protection, the most popular starting point was mechanical engineering. I would think the next few weeks will also support the notion, but if we need to find good people - it's time to start recruiting the best mechanical engineers! The next part of this series will cover college degrees when we 'first' got into fire protection, which could help highlight exactly where we started out and what we had pursued prior to being in the industry. Why is all this important? Well, if you're a team leader, a recruiter, a manager, or someone in a role where you need help - then it's time to start recruiting! Where do you go? Where have people gone before? Where do we, as an industry, have the most luck in finding talent? Well - look at the data. Check out your user group (are you a contractor? engineer? AHJ?), and see where people historically have come from. That's the first hint on where you might have the most success first. We'll go deeper on this in the next part, for now - have a great rest of your week! I’m excited today to start a series on the who of fire protection. We’ve seen salary surveys in the past. We’ve seen studies on what degrees people have. But – what about the questions that we all really want answered about how we all got into fire in the first place? MY BIG QUESTIONS:
The awesome thing is – because of your help – we now have data to answer every one of these questions – and we will. SURVEY RESPONSES A few weeks ago I posted a survey and we received 443 anonymous responses from you. Thank you! The 443 total responses include:
For this series, and in splitting out the date, I will use these four different categories:
Each of these different groupings seem to each show different trends and tendencies, and I think the takeaways will be better showcased by doing so. THIS SERIES OF ARTICLES Originally I thought one article could summarize the data and give helpful feedback, but after going through and categorizing over 3,100 different data points (yes, I read and categorized all of them), I found a lot of interesting takeaways that I don’t want to skim over. So that said, today’s post is the first in a series where I answer each of these big questions. GROUND RULES FOR THE SURVEY & DATA USAGE A few ground rules that I think are really important here. If you’re less interested in the nuts and bolts – I suggest skipping down to the findings below. #1 LOOKING IN THE REARVIEW FOR CONCLUSIONS ABOUT THE FUTURE First – I like to think I have a good grasp on how to speak about the industry in a way that would resonate with someone new. I like to think that. However, I’m terrible about it. I once talked with a nice lady on a plane who asked what I did and I tried to explain what my version of fire protection engineering is. After we talked for most of the flight I mentioned that the industry has things like smoke control, fire modeling, hydraulic calculations, etc. She said I should always start with that stuff, because what I’d said I did sounded incredibly boring. And she was a nice lady! I’m not great at reading other people’s motivations. Most of us aren’t. So in order to answer questions about – “how do I pitch fire protection?” or “where should I be looking for help?” – I think we first have to look at ourselves and find out who we are. Where did we start? Why did we get into the field in the first place? If we can answer those questions about ourselves, by looking backwards, then that just might be the best possible answer on how we address industry concerns and issues moving forward. #2 I HAVE NO AGENDA HERE Second disclaimer - I didn’t come into this with an agenda. The questions (which can be seen here) do not suggest, prompt, or give examples for any specific end result. #3 ALL QUESTIONS ARE OPEN-ENDED FOR UNPROMPTED ANSWERS Third – each question was open-ended. This is critical. When we’re asking for things like “how did you first hear about fire protection?” or “why did you go into the fire protection field?”, it’s imperative that we don’t suggest ideas. That would poison the well. We needed authentic, unprompted responses. And that’s what we got in this survey. Just as a quick example – if I ask why you went into the field and laid out seven reasons – naturally we’d select the top ones and move on. That’s not truly representative. Each person has their own reasons, and that’s what I wanted to seek out. It’s not good enough to say “career opportunities” as the reason to get into the field, what we actually need to know is what the unprompted reasons are. This point becomes really important when we’ll get into reasons why people get into the industry and where they became aware of the industry. When we get data that says that 19% of all designers and engineering techs got into the field in part because they felt it was “interesting” or 12% thought it would be “enjoyable”, well, those are unprompted sentiments. We didn’t put those words into mouths or give A/B/C/D options – that’s what you, the industry, is telling us about why you chose to get into the field. #4 I'VE CATEGORIZED AND DID MY BEST TO STAY TRUE TO YOUR INPUT Last – it isn’t helpful to have a survey that says 443 different things and just give that back. So, in reading everything that was submitted, I categorized and tried to group responses into themes. I did my best to stay true to the original response in every case. If someone said they thought the salary would be great, or the pay, or the money – well that’s pretty easy to categorize together. Others weren’t as black and white, but I did my best to stay true to your responses and in no cases put words in anyone’s mouths. That’s the last important point before we hop in. So what are we covering today? Today I want to talk on awareness. TODAY'S DATA: HOW DID YOU FIRST HEAR ABOUT FIRE PROTECTION? We, in the fire protection industry, have been described as “niche” and “specialized”. You’ve probably heard many times how people didn’t really know a fire protection industry “existed”. So, how do people first become aware of the fire protection industry? To this, we had a lot of different responses. A summary chart for the raw data from the survey (just to give an idea of the analysis involved) Here's a quick summary of how people hear about fire protection, in total: Few notes on the summary table:
BREAKDOWN BY GROUP Here are breakdowns of this question by different user groups: ARCHITECTURAL & ENGINEERING SPACE For Architecture & Engineering, the top ways people first became aware of fire protection are (139 applicable responses): #1 Learned about it while working in an adjacent industry/space (35%)
#3 Originally wanted to be a firefighter/am a firefighter (9%) CONTRACTING SPACE For the Contracting space, ways people became aware of fire protection are (172 applicable responses): #1 Having family or a relative in the industry (24%) #2 Having a friend or family friend in the industry (19%) #3 Learned about it while working in an adjacent industry/space (19%)
FIRE DEPARTMENTS, AHJs, & GOVERNMENT For Fire Departments, AHJs, and Government entities (63 applicable responses): #1 Originally wanted to be a firefighter/am a firefighter (32%) #2 Learned about it while working in an adjacent industry/space (21%)
INSURANCE, MANUFACTURING, ORGANIZATIONS & CORPORATE CLIENTS For Insurance, Manufacturing, Organizations and Corporate Clients (34 applicable responses): #1 Learned about it while working in an adjacent industry/space (29%)
#3 By Recruiting or Career Fair (18%) ALL RESPONSES For everyone combined, here’s the full rundown of top ways people became aware of fire protection: TAKEAWAYS
So what does this mean? What are the takeaways here? What trends are there? #1: Most People do not start out in Fire Protection. This has been a suspicion for some time. Even counting firefighters as “in the industry”, only 48% of respondents (213) started their first “real” job in fire protection. The remaining 228 respondents started somewhere else. This is commonly spoken around the industry, but I’m not sure that we’ve ever had some data to support it. What does this mean? If we’re looking to source talent, it can’t all come from high school, community college, technical schools or universities. Over half of those in the industry are already in some other field. #2: Contractors Spread the Word via Friends & Family The top ways how those who work for contractors hear about fire protection is overwhelmingly by family, a friend, or relative (43% combined). This is very different than everyone else, where that’s half as likely to happen. What does this mean? For one – kudos to contractors for spreading the word. Those who are now in the industry and work for contractors overwhelmingly heard about it from family and friends. For two – this word-of-mouth among contractors is a very important part in sourcing talent. We’ll get into the data there as we get further along. #3: Don’t Discount the Allure of Firefighting for Industry Awareness It seems like half of my son’s preschool class want to be firefighters when they grow up. My 5-year old daughter wants to be a firefighter for Halloween. I doubt either of them have any that I work in the fire industry. The allure of firefighting is an asset we probably overlook too much. I wouldn’t say that we’re all some version of a pyromaniac in this industry, but I would contend that we’re all at least somewhat fascinated with the spectacle of fire itself. What does this mean? The appeal of firefighting, and as a means that brings people to the industry, actually shows up in the data as far as awareness. I wonder if we couldn’t play that up a little more. So if you’re a student in a technical field and have had some buried fascination with firefighting? Well, here’s a whole industry on it. Join the cause. WHAT'S YOUR TAKE? From the data we’ve looked at today, those are my biggest three takeaways. What do you see? What’s a surprise, and what is not? Does any of this back up your anecdotal experience? Join our discussion here. I hate surveys. Hate 'em. Somewhere about 3 years ago it seemed every corporation attended the same weekend seminar and decided that they would hound you for a quick 25-minutes survey after any interaction. Like - any - interaction. My wife had a short phone call with the nurse line for the pediatrician and she received three emails, a text link and a voicemail to complete a survey about it. Crazy land! Today - this survey - is not about the LLC; it's a quick study to get information that you all have been asking for. First, the whole reason I first created meyerfire.com was to find unique ways to contribute to the industry. I love the fire protection industry. I really do. I enjoy the people, I enjoy the attitude, I enjoy advocating for fire protection as the underdog trade. If you've read some of these posts for awhile, I hope you've gathered that. This site is truly nothing more than my best attempt to serve you with helpful things that allow you to do great work in the world. At the end of the day, or at the end of our career, ultimately, saving lives is what we're all hoping to achieve. If you haven't read about what we're all about, I gush about it in more detail here. Worth poking around there if you haven't already. So what does that have to do with today's post? I get asked all the time - "how do I find talented people?" "I need a sprinkler designer." "I need an estimator." "I need experienced help." "I need more new hires." "The kids out of school these days!" On, and on. I’ve had some great conversations on this and ideas to share. But perhaps the most important piece is getting the data in the first place. Where does talent actually come from? That’s this week. While I'm the one collecting the inputs - the results are going to have some key indicators for you. This is not a salary survey. This is not a "where is everyone" survey. This is a look at where we come from, and how we got started. The survey is short, simple, and I'll share the results with you within 3 weeks from today. Please, please, please, take this 2-minute, 6-question survey: Thank you so much! I very much look forward to sharing some ideas and insights that we can gather from the data.
- Joe Awhile back I wrote a piece on sprinklers in electrical rooms. At the time I was asked relatively frequently about when sprinklers are required or allowed to be omitted in electrical rooms. I guess intuitively, we recognize that electricity and water don’t mix well. We don’t want to address one problem (fire) by creating a new hazard (electrocution) with water in areas that it doesn’t have to be. In principle, I personally have just about always provided sprinklers in electrical rooms unless they were specifically requested not to be provided by the owner or AHJ; and in those cases, I followed the code path in the IBC or NFPA 13 accordingly. It seems as though the premise behind not including sprinklers is when the type of electrical equipment present a relatively low hazard or fuel source, and there is no storage. In that situation, a combination of 2-hour fire-resistance-rated enclosure with approved fire detection (assuming a smoke and/or heat detector here) will mean that a fire within the room will be recognized, and the rest of the building will not be compromised as a result. Providing pipe within an electrical room isn’t always an easy feat. NFPA 70 tells us that electrical equipment requires dedicated zones, and pipe shouldn’t be run above panels without drip pans or other methods of avoiding drip hazards above electrical equipment. Now are sprinklers in electrical rooms problematic? Generally not (in my experience). Can pipe routing be made to avoid electrical equipment? Usually yes. I try to only run one branch line into the room, most often above the door (since no electrical equipment is on the door), and stick pipe only above walking pathways within the room. Does the code or standards express any concern or guidance on this? Yes, both the IBC and NFPA 13 address the situation. One line that is included in the IBC specifically says that sprinklers “shall not be omitted from any room merely because it...contains electrical equipment”. To me, that’s a fairly explicit way of suggesting that the presence of electrical equipment alone isn’t a justification for omitting sprinklers. Now there are code allowances and necessary provisions to do so, but the suggestion is not to simply avoid sprinklers just because there is electrical gear. Despite it being awhile since that article, I have had a few requests to make this one into a flowchart, which I’m happy to present today. A special thank you to Alex Riley, PE, who contributed to the code research for this flowchart.
We previously have introduced different types and combinations of threaded fittings - which have been around for more than a century. Here we're introducing another common way to join pipe; using grooved fittings. An attic sprinkler system using a grooved elbow with couplings. Use of "mechanical" couplings that could allow faster joining of pipe came to life in 1919 by Lieutenant Ernest Tribe. Just a few years later the Victory Pipe Joint Company renamed itself to Victaulic (a combination of "victory" and "hydraulic"), and grew to expand the technology worldwide. Today, Victaulic and other manufacturing leaders provide grooved fittings that are often used for pipes in fire sprinkler systems. It is not uncommon for both mains and branch lines to be grooved today. What are common grooved fittings, and how do they work? Let's introduce them. An in-rack sprinkler with a branch line using (starting with the sprinkler) a groove x thread reducing elbow with a grooved coupling, a grooved piece of pipe, and a grooved tee (connection not shown). PIPE Let's start with the pipe. In order to give grooved fittings an opportunity to "grip" the pipe and remain in place, they need an opportunity to resist the pressure of the water that is trying to "pull away" the pipe from the fittings which join them together. A grooved coupling about to connect two grooved-end pipes. Note the loose nut and bolt on the right-hand side, allowing the coupling to be expanded and "slip" over the pipe on the left. In order to create a groove in the pipe, steel can either be "roll groove" or "cut groove". Roll groove pipe involves pressing an indentation into the pipe near the end of the pipe. This allows a grooved fitting to slip over the end of the pipe and fit into the groove. Roll groove pipe has the advantage of not reducing the pipe thickness, so it can have more tolerance for corrosion than thinner pipe, similar pipe with threads, or pipe with cut grooves. Pipe which is cut groove involves cutting into the pipe rather than pressing it. This cutting removes a portion of the pipe wall, making a thinner but smooth interior pipe wall. This thinner wall makes it more susceptible to corrosion, however, for pipe systems with a minor slope, the smooth inside of the pipe does not create a ridge where water can sit and corrode the pipe. Roll Grooved Pipe (top) and Cut Grooved Pipe (bottom). Note the ridge on the inside of the pipe wall for roll groove pipe, and the thinner pipe wall along the cut groove pipe. A tape measure with a "go" or "no-go" measurement to determine if the groove is within manufacturer tolerances. ELBOWS & TEES Let's start with the basics. Elbows allow bends of 90-degrees (most common), 45-degrees, 22-1/2 degrees, and 11-1/4 degrees. Why not every possible angle? What if I need to have a 60-degree bend because of my building? First, it wouldn't be economical to make a fitting of every bend. Second, is that using just two 90-degree elbows back-to-back we're able to create a "swing joint" and make any angle we could want, just by changing the elevation of the pipe that's being joined. Victaulic "FireLock" Grooved Fittings; 90-Degree Elbow #001 (left), 45-Degree Elbow #003 (center), and Standard Tee #002 (right) One notable specialty with the grooved elbow is a "Drain Elbow", which has the elbow except it includes a drain outlet at the bend of the elbow. This is used all the time with fire department connections which come down a wall and need to be capable of being drained (to avoid having water-charged pipe freeze and burst). This is also called a "Drain-El" or is a Victaulic #10-DR. A wall-mounted fire department connection that is away from the riser, here showing the "Drain Elbow" with a ball drip below. The portion upstream of the check valve is intended to be dry unless the FDC is actively being used in order to avoid freezing water inside. COUPLINGS Nice sketches, Joe, but that's not how things look in the field! That's because unlike threaded fittings, the actual pipe joining is by a grooved coupling. The coupling has malleable iron bumps that grip the indent of one groove (pipe/fitting) and connect it to the second groove (the other pipe/fitting). A grooved coupling (here a Victaulic #009N shown). OTHER FITTINGS There are a host of other fitting types. Grooved Reducing Tees? Yep. Less common. Less common can equate to more expensive, or at least that's what I hear from contractors familiar with all the pricing nuances. What other grooved fittings do I often see? Reducing fittings, which is a concentric, single-cast piece of metal that has a large groove on one end and tapers down to a smaller groove on another end. One note of caution is using these in the vertical orientation; I've heard it is much better, more stable, and stronger to use a reducing-fitting as opposed to a reducing-coupling when in a vertical orientation. One of my clients goes so far to say to not use reducing couplings at all (where the coupling itself has two different groove sizes). I wouldn't have the expertise to gauge that myself. A flange x groove reducer (left) and a grooved cap (right). There are also reducing adapters, than can accept a flange connection and convert it to a reduced groove connection. Crosses are also available, as are caps (like the Victaulic #006 shown above on the right) which can terminate the end of a branch line. These caps even have 1-inch threaded opening options for easy auxiliary drains. Many manufacturers have equipment and components with grooved ends that can readily attach to pipe and fittings. If you're looking to explore the extend of all available grooved fittings, I'd invite you to check out manufacturer's catalogs or do a simple google search for grooved sprinkler pipe fittings. The manufacturer's product data can do a whole lot of good in clarifying what's been created and listed for use in sprinkler systems. Have tips, tricks, or things to consider about grooved fittings? Comment below. That's all for this week - hope you have a great rest of yours. When teaching the basics of sprinkler layout, I find it far too easy to jump right to talking about sprinkler spacing distances and the coverage area in relatable terms. SPRINKLER SPACING AS 225 SQFT & 15x15 I say that a sprinkler is limited by a coverage area limit, and by a maximum spacing. I then introduce an example for Light Hazard with an acoustical ceiling tile, and explain that the limits are 225 sqft and 15-ft x 15-ft. That's all technically correct. And, as an example, it's a common one for those of us that work regularly with light commercial buildings. However, by giving that example, there is a whole series of assumptions built in that I completely gloss over. UNDERSTANDING THE PATH Experienced Designers & Engineers will tell you (they've told me), that to teach the fundamentals correctly we really need to start with all the considerations and assumptions that go into a sprinkler layout. Is the structure combustible, noncombustible, or limited-combustible? Is the construction Obstructed or Unobstructed? Are we assuming standard-spray sprinklers, or something like ESFR or Extended Coverage? I've gotten caught making basic mistakes - spacing sidewalls inappropriately because I just assumed that a 14x14 spacing applied regardless of the construction type. I could be wrong here, but my guess is that even experienced people have made the same mistakes I have on sprinkler spacing because we've glossed over the combustible nature of the ceiling. A new sprinkler spacing flowchart. Click above to download. A PDF FLOWCHART
Partially to satisfy my own curiosity, and partially because we're getting into a lot of detail with teaching these concepts on the University platform (all our PDF resources are there), I've broken out these different paths and decision trees in a new pdf flowchart. Click above to download the full PDF version. EVERYDAY USE? Unlike some of the other charts and checklists we've created, this probably isn't one I'm going to be referencing daily. There's typically only a few common limitations that apply to most of the work that I do. However, just as a concept, I find it interesting how the considerations of combustible/noncombustible construction, obstructed and unobstructed, exposed members versus non-exposed members all play a part in how NFPA 13 tells us to properly protect each space. This can be helpful as a teaching tool in introducing the spacing concepts. Hope you have a great rest of your week! This week I'm happy to debut an update to one of our popular tools, the K-Factor selector, which is a part of the Toolkit. This tool quickly calculates the actual pressure and flow across different types of sprinklers. It's helpful when we're trying to select the best-possible sprinkler for a hazard. Even for light hazard areas, a standard k5.6 sprinkler may not be the 'optimal' sprinkler, from a hydraulic perspective. We touched on this when looking at whether the flow through a sprinkler is governed by the density and area or by the k-factor and minimum pressure. In short, the minimum flow through a sprinkler can be driven by the coverage area of the sprinkler multiplied by the density of the hazard, or, it can be driven by the k-factor of the sprinkler and the minimum pressure that sprinkler requires. In either case, it's important to make a quality selection for the k-factor if we want to reduce the required pressure and flow that a system will demand. Less flow usually means less friction loss, which can result in more efficient systems and smaller pipe sizes (saved cost of material and labor).
The updates to this tool make it mobile and tablet friendly, and also now clearly indicate what the 'optimal' sprinkler k-factor is for flow and for pressure (hint: they're not always the same). If you're a Toolkit user, just click the image above to see the updates. Thanks! |
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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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March 2024
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