Outstanding! Lots of info and the answers I needed. Thanks to all. Ed: I'm pretty sure it would fall under NFPA 13R - Connected Townhouse, three stories.
Forest: No, there is no valve that's "furthest and highest". There's no real ITC, just a tap tee at the riser with the gauge and drain hose-bib. This is how I came to wonder the question in the first place; I wanted to see how they were going to manage the bleed. Maybe in the way Tom suggested, but nope. George: No, there's no alarm system flow-switch either. Unless you count me dialing 911 if/when I hear the wooshing sound. Chris: It is BlazeMaster and the very text you quoted from their install guide. I see now the nuance that bleeding is for the high pressure test, not necessarily for just putting into service. However... The contractor was the same company that installed the system in the first place, and what he meant was that they don't bleed them even for the initial install. So I think that means it has never been hydrostatically tested. I understand the Boyles Law of proportionality and the compressibility of gas vs liquid. In fact, I thought that was reason for bleed. That the air in the system would not "absorb" temperature changes, but would inflict pressure increases with a rise in temperature in that closed system. Pipes full of water aren't going to expand... (unless they freeze - and boy did I learn that one the hard way). Another reason I assumed was that - in the event the system activates for an real fire - water hammers hitting the heads and joints as it forcefully expels the trapped air could damage them and cause them to fail. Whatever. It seams from all evidence and comments that this is SOP and I'll not worry about it anymore. Thanks again to all who contributed. _______________________________________________ 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)
