I had the same experience. No water within 2 miles of the site, large manufacturing campus with multiple bldgs, lots of EH and specialty systems, 3500 gpm fire pumps. Water supply provided by two separate municipalities. 6M gallons of water and pressure was no issue. All of this was based on computer modeling of course. Owner was tied into new municipal feeds and once the lines were complete and hydrants placed, the actual flow wasn't even close. Now the first thing they did was flow a hydrant a mile from the site, one outlet only and came up with numbers that might have been good for a small office but no where near anything we could use.
After a bunch of wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth, the water companies basically said "what you got is what you got". At the 11.9th hour the owner had to end up ordering and installing a new fire water tank. They were not very happy about spending nearly another half million dollars. Craig L. Prahl, CET Fire Protection Specialist Mechanical Department CH2MHILL Lockwood Greene 1500 International Drive PO Box 491, Spartanburg, SC 29304-0491 Direct - 864.599.4102 Fax - 864.599.8439 [email protected] http://www.ch2m.com -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Steve Kowkabany Sent: Thursday, September 24, 2009 8:18 AM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: Inadequte Water I have the single most frustrating water issue I have ever had going on right now Greg. I am working on this small commercial entrance facility at a military base in Georgia. We are only sprinklering a small 3,800 sqft cargo transfer building and getting the water from the local utility rather than the base. We designed based on modeling data that was the only thing available at design (there was no water within a mile then) and had no problem making the small light hazard wet system work. Last week the underground was finally finished and we had our main run up to the building and some nearby hydrants to test, so we tested them - 55/25 at 750 gpm. Bad water but still enough to make an little light hazard wet system work right? Not once you take a 3,000 sqft design area, a 500 gpm hose allowance due to the presence of 300 sqft of OH1 rooms, and a mandatory 12 psi pressure across the BFP regardless of the fact that it is actually a double-check - all mandatory per UFC codes. After all that, you need 850 gpm at 40 psi to make this system work and we are looking at a pump and a tank! It's a very frustrating situation, so feel free to tell your AHJ he is not alone. Steve Kowkabany, P.E. Fire Protection Engineer Neptune Fire Protection Engineering LLC 616 Davis Street Neptune Beach, FL 32266 904-652-4200 Phone 904-212-0868 Fax -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Greg McGahan Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 4:20 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Inadequte Water Just fielded a question from an AHJ in a nearby community about being sued by an angry building owner that is saying the water pressure is inadequate for the sprinkler system. (Static pressure has fallen 5 psi since construction). If any of you have specific experience with a situation like this I would like to be able to help him with some stories. Greg McGahan Operations Manager Living Water Fire Protection 1160 McKenzie Road P.O. Box 877 Cantonment, Florida 32533 (850) 937.1850 | Fax (850) 937.1852 | Cell (850) 554.3231 [email protected] _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field) No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.409 / Virus Database: 270.13.111/2386 - Release Date: 09/23/09 05:52:00 _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field) _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field)
