INTERNATIONAL
CODE COUNCIL
The combination of the insulation envelope, low energy-consuming heating and no air conditioner is significantly reducing Lenberg’s demand on Farmington’s electical utility. In October 2010, his home used 375kW, while usage in an adjacent home of similar size was 849kW.
Water conservation
A reclamation tank (Figure 7) collects wastewater from the sinks and showers, and chemically treats it to make it usable for flushing toilets and outdoor irrigation. According to the Farmington Water and Wastewater Utility, the average individual in a Farmington household uses 100 gallons of potable water per day. Thus, the daily usage in a two-person household like Lenberg’s would be 200 gallons. The water reclamation system allows them to reuse 100 gallons of their daily consumption for toilet flushing and lawn irrigation. That system has reduced their demand on the city water utility by 50 percent.
Lenberg’s water reclamation system plays another important conservation role. Xeriscaping in the Farmington region conserves water but leaves residential yards devoid of plants and trees. In contrast, the Lenberg’s front yard is lined with flower beds, part of the rear yard has grass and five fruit trees are growing (Figure 8). As the trees grow, they will consume larger amounts of CO2 the CO2, which will help counter being released by the electrical utility. When mature, the trees will also augment the home’s insulation by shading the rear wall from the afternoon heat.
Residential Fire Sprinklers and Sustainability
Recent testing has documented the value of residential fire sprinklers in conserving water, reducing environmental impact and increasing structural sustainability. Factory Mutual Insurance, a major international property insurer, constructed identical dwellings inside its burn facilities in Norwood, Massachusetts. The site is equipped to capture and analyze all of the smoke, gases and water runoff from the burn tests. The fires in one dwelling were manually suppressed by firefighters, while the other dwelling was protected with residential sprinklers.
Water conservation
The test results showed that the residential fire sprinklers needed around one-tenth the gallonage of water needed for manual suppression.1 Data from long-term studies in Scottsdale, Arizona, confirm those figures.2
Environmental impact
The FM tests also compared the environmental damage caused in the dwelling with fire sprinklers and then without them. The data show that fires in sprinkler-protected homes will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 97.8 percent.3
Analysis of the water runoff showed manually suppressed fires have a serious environmental impact.4 The pH level of the runoff water from the sprinkler-suppressed fires remained within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines of 5.5-9.0. The pH level of the runoff water from the manually suppressed fires was four times above the EPA guidelines.
The FM report also concluded that the amount of property damage in manually suppressed fires will exceed sprinkler-suppressed fires by a 10:1 ratio. In addition to the reduced environmental impact on air and water, sprinkler-suppressed fires preserve a significant amount of property and building materials that would otherwise be sent to landfills.
Community Sustainability
New subdivisions require additional physical infrastructure, such as streets, electrical, gas, water and sewage utilities. But they also require additional service infrastructure, such as police and fire protection. The national standard for career fire departments, National Fire Protection Standard 1710, requires the following minimum response to house fires:
• Two pumpers, each with four firefighters.
• One ladder truck with five firefighters.
• One chief officer.
The standard also sets maximum response times. It calls for the first apparatus to arrive in a four-minute travel time, with the remaining apparatus arriving in two more minutes. The staff requirements and response times are based on the fact that critical tasks, such as fire attack, ventilation, search and rescue, water supply, etc., must be performed simultaneously or in a highly coordinated manner. Figure 9 shows a fire scene where the fire department complies with NFPA 1710.
The data from communities with sprinkler-protected homes show that the protection significantly reduces the number of apparatus and firefighters that are needed to respond. In sprinkler-suppressed fires, the majority of fires are out before the first fire company arrives. Consequently, no need exists for all of the critical tasks required in manually suppressed fires. The first responding company can confirm that the fire is out or under control, cancel the other apparatus, remove any burned objects and ensure that the system is placed back in operation. Figure 10 shows a fire scene at a sprinkler-suppressed fire.
But sustainability also applies to the environment, energy resources and community viability.
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