Making Copper Pipe into Overhead Sprinkler

[Streetcar]

I have not seen a hole in a pipe that wasn’t a stream of water. You need a spray head for fire suppression

 

[JasperFrank]

Soaker hose? Just thinking out loud....

 

[NormL]

How about paying a visit to an ag dealer who may just be able to supply you with someone's cast off booms and nozzles from a crop sprayer. Free advice and worth every nickle (no pennies in Canada anymore)

 

[SmallChange]

A numerical consideration: you want the combined area of all the holes to be smaller than the area of the cross section of the pipe interior. This will make the holes work approximately the same, rather than having the earlier holes spray more than their share of the water.

 

[ericm979]

There's been a lot of research on roof fire sprinklers and how houses ignite in fires in the last few decades.

Wildfires usually are accompanied by wind. Either there's a strong wind driving the fire or the fire makes its own wind (which I can attest to having been a wildland fire fighter). Your sprinkler system needs to take that into account. If the sprinklers are on the roof spraying up, the water's going to get blown away from the leading edge of the house.

There's plenty on the internet about this, for example:

https://www.7thgenerationdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/fire-WEEDS.pdf

Before sprinklers I'd ensure that the roof vents are ember resistant. They make a lot of them now as they're required when building in WUI areas in California. Brandguard is one company. Blown embers getting inside via vents is a major cause of house ignition in a fire. If you watch footage people shot while fleeing the town of Paradise during the Camp fire you will see how bad the embers can be. There's a ton of info on the internet about this too.

One problem with a sprinkler system is having the water to run it, and deciding when to turn it on. It doesn't do any good if it will run for four hours on your gravity-fed water system but the fire arrives eight hours after you evacuate and turn the sprinklers on. Or if you're on a pressure tank and the power goes out. Fire crews often refill their truck's tanks while parked at a house during a fire, so you want to leave some water for them.

 

[scootr]

Seems some type of eve vent closures would be beneficial.

 

[rScotty]

Why not use 1" poly tubing?

It melts. Plus I can't see any advantage to poly except cost - and so far everytime I've made a decision to design or build based on cost I've later wished I'd done it differently.
rScotty

 

[scootr]

Curious to see what you end up with.
I think I would go with pvc pipe and irrigation sprinkler heads.

 

[2manyrocks]

There's been a lot of research on roof fire sprinklers and how houses ignite in fires in the last few decades.

Wildfires usually are accompanied by wind. Either there's a strong wind driving the fire or the fire makes its own wind (which I can attest to having been a wildland fire fighter). Your sprinkler system needs to take that into account. If the sprinklers are on the roof spraying up, the water's going to get blown away from the leading edge of the house.

There's plenty on the internet about this, for example:

https://www.7thgenerationdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/fire-WEEDS.pdf

Before sprinklers I'd ensure that the roof vents are ember resistant. They make a lot of them now as they're required when building in WUI areas in California. Brandguard is one company. Blown embers getting inside via vents is a major cause of house ignition in a fire. If you watch footage people shot while fleeing the town of Paradise during the Camp fire you will see how bad the embers can be. There's a ton of info on the internet about this too.

One problem with a sprinkler system is having the water to run it, and deciding when to turn it on. It doesn't do any good if it will run for four hours on your gravity-fed water system but the fire arrives eight hours after you evacuate and turn the sprinklers on. Or if you're on a pressure tank and the power goes out. Fire crews often refill their truck's tanks while parked at a house during a fire, so you want to leave some water for them.

My reading of the PDF is a recommendation to use PVC pipe run from under the soffitts with irrigation heads for a coarse and overlapping spray.

 

[rScotty]

Curious to see what you end up with.
I think I would go with pvc pipe and irrigation sprinkler heads.

Seems some type of eve vent closures would be beneficial.

I'm curious too. I know I'll do it this summer - just don't know how. I'd kind of like to use PVC just because it is quick & thick enough to tap for some sort of sprinkler assembly. Doing the same in copper is more work... but doable. And has the advantage of once done it lasts forever. I've put in lots of PVC over the years. In fact, I built a boathouse for our trimaran out of 2" thick wall PVC covered with tensioned tarps. Inexpensive, easy to work, and functioned well for half a dozen years. If I'd done it with wood it would still be there and useful.

On the eves, yes they need to be closed. Both our house and barn have boxed eaves built with cement board for the fascia and the soffit. I can't imagine not enclosing the eaves on a rural structure. It would lead to all kinds of problems.

BTW, you and several others have mentioned "irrigation sprinkler heads" - any favorites? I don't even know what they are.

rScotty