We’ve seen fire sprinklers many times before, in commercial buildings, factories, or even your doctor’s office. How do they work? The Youtube channel, ScienceWorld, demonstrates the different types of fire sprinklers and what they can do.
There are several different types of sprinklers that fire sprinkler companies install. There’s a small glass bulb on each sprinkler that will expand and break in the event the heat becomes too much.
For example, an orange bulb will expand and activate the sprinkler at 57 degrees Celsius, or 135 degrees Fahrenheit. A black bulb will only break at an extreme 227 degrees Celsius, or 440 degrees Fahrenheit. What temperature each bulb will break depends on its color.
Each of these sprinklers is attached to an entire system. The most commonly used one is the wet system. With water filling the pipes and up to the sprinklers, this system is intended to set off individual sprinklers to reduce water damage should there be a false alarm.
The other types are the dry system and preaction system. With dry, each pipe is filled with pressurized nitrogen gas instead of water. This reduces the risk of freezing. Preaction systems require two steps for activation.