Sorry for coming into this a week late.  We have recently been dealing with 
specs and AHJ requirements that state we need to supply 130psi and/or 140psi at 
the top outlet regardless of whether it is manual or automatic.  Same flows as 
outlined in NFPA 14 (500gpm +250gpm per standpipe up to 1000gpm).  The fire 
pumper truck is still sized for 150psi @ 1000gpm.  What do you suggest we do if 
we can only set the FDC to be the source of 151@0 and 150@1000?  Some building 
are still 70ft tall and the standpipe is still a manual wet.  Only accounting 
for elevation we are looking at 160psi/170psi demand at the FDC.  Even if your 
answer is make it an automatic standpipe, the 140psi requirement limits the 
"manual" standpipe building height to 23ft when we don't account for friction 
loss using your calculation procedure.  So we can't even meet these manual FDC 
150psi calcs on a building that doesn't even need a standpipe.

Thanks,
Sean VG



-----Original Message-----
From: Sprinklerforum [mailto:[email protected]] On 
Behalf Of Steve Leyton
Sent: Monday, March 14, 2016 3:57 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: Standpipe Calc: Adding City Demand to Pumper Truck?

Tony:

You (or the submitter) are over-simplifying what the annex says.  It's not the 
intent that you take the city flow test and add it to the pumper curve.  NFPA 
1901 sets the basic performance curve for a pumper at 150 PSI/1,000 GPM.   NFPA 
13E is the standard for FD Operations for buildings equipped with sprinklers 
and standpipes - that standard goes into the company engineer's procedure for 
calculating the discharge pressure of the pump based on suction pressure, 
friction loss in hose and other variables.   But the bottom line is that it's 
all targeted at discharging 150 PSI residual at 1,000 GPM.   This has NOTHING 
to do with pressure at the FDC; it has to do with calculating the performance 
of the apparatus.   What gets to the FDC is up to the engineer.

Which is why 7.7.4 states, "When the system demand to be supplied by the fire 
department at the fire department connection is being determined, the local 
fire department shall be consulted regarding the water supply available from a 
fire department pumper."    FROM A FIRE DEPARTMENT PUMPER.   It's up to the 
incident commander and his or her engineer to determine the suction pressure 
and set their discharge to whatever is required to make their programmed 
starting pressure.  And based on the nationwide standard and best practices, 
that is almost certain to be 150 PSI at the prescribed flow rate.  The engineer 
will calculate the friction loss in the discharge hose that's connected to the 
building.  If you are reviewing plans that show 150 PSI residual plus a 
positive suction head at that flow rate as the inlet pressure, then that is 
almost certainly not correct.    

To answer your question, if I have a building with two (750 GPM) or three or 
more (1,000 GPM) standpipes, we plug in a "flow test" static pressure of 151 
PSI and a residual of 150 PSI at the target flow rate and we run the calc' 
using the FDC as the "city connection".    We plug in a 500 PSI hose stream 
allowance at the most remote standpipe outlets and at 250 GPM hose streams at 
those points in the bulk main system where the other risers take off.  We allow 
5 PSI for loss in a standard hose valve so the minimum pressure at any node is 
105 PSI.   

The foregoing is my opinion only and does not represent the opinion of or any 
manner of interpretation by NFPA or the Technical Committee on Standpipes.

Steve Leyton

-----Original Message-----
From: Sprinklerforum [mailto:[email protected]] On 
Behalf Of Tony Eggster
Sent: Monday, March 14, 2016 3:24 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Standpipe Calc: Adding City Demand to Pumper Truck?

Quick question: I'm reviewing some plans for a manual class I standpipe and the 
designer added the city flow test to the usual 1000gpm fire pumper curve in 
order to keep all the pipe down to 4". I see in the NFPA 14 appendix that you 
can do this but personally I've always just calculated solely to the pumper 
curve. How do you guys do it?

Also, I'm assuming that if you do factor in city supply wouldn't that 
frequently require high pressure pipe and fittings depending on city supply psi?

_TONY
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