Making Copper Pipe into Overhead Sprinkler

[scootr]

I would make a test using fixed spray heads. Home depot should have everything you need.
Half circles. Make sure they overlap a bit for full coverage.
Maybe make up a section and hook it to a garden hose in the driveway to see what kind of coverage you get.
Keep us posted.

 

[rScotty]

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.

Eric, that's an excellent slide presentation. Thanks for the link. The recommended installations look a lot like what I've been thinking of doing. Two friends have lost their places to wildfires in the last decade and we spend a lot of time talking about it.

Windblown embers seem to be the main igniter. One friend said that the windward side of his barn looked like buckshot hit it where embers had lodged and burnt through. And inside his large (20 horse) barn the spraying embers made it look like a fireworks display. Nothing caught fire... Barn is still there.

All the eaves on our house and barn are boxed in. That is pretty typical construction in a wildfire area. We do not have asphalt shingles of course - having that type of shingle would make everything else a waste of time.
Water supply is a creek, so no problem with water. The shallow well can easily supply plenty. Generator is propane right now, but there is the tractor with PTO pump - which I need to experiment with using directly from from the creek. That is another project...

Venting is interesting. Very important many places, but this is high mountain dry desert climate. The barn is for machines rather than animals these days, so it isn't vented any longer. As far as that goes, few high mountain houses are permanently vented. They tend to use doors and windows fror the small amount of active venting people like. Keeping things humidified is important too.
rScotty

 

[ericm979]

In my part of California the attics are often vented to let the hot air out in summer but the living space in newer houses is pretty air tight. Our house that was built in the '80s isn't but the neighbor's new ADU is so tight that they need a whole house ERV to get enough air turnover.

There's new rules from the state insurance commissioner that when insurance companies cancel your policy they have to tell you what you can do to not get cancelled. Someone in my area who got one of those letters shared it, and one of the things that's on that list is boxed-in eaves.

The guy who built our place put in roof sprinklers but he put them half way up the roof which was the thinking at the time.

We're likely to evacuate well before any fire gets here. I would not be turning the sprinkers on when I leave as there won't be water left for the firefighters. Maybe they can turn them on.

 

[JPRambo]

Something with a fine mist. Drill a hole and insert

 

[paulsharvey]

Something like a MiG tip might make an easy, pre-made, and uniform nozzle.

 

[3Ts]

Post #24 beat me to it. But that's what I'd use.

Micro sprinkler

 

[Carl_NH]

I know you want to use copper or similar materials, but in my opinion PVC or Poly pipe would be much easier, since if it's hot enough to melt or damage the poly or PVC (over 150F) then you have a real problem no matter the pipe.

I have used Drip Depot and are happy with their products, and you can get misting and micro nozzles too, and if you put the 1/2" poly or PVC in the eves and just exposed the sprinlker head that might be a good solution. Misting cooling misting kits

 

[MossRoad]

Something with a fine mist. Drill a hole and insert

I use a couple dozen of those on my flowers and vegetables.

 

[civilian]

If you want to drill a hole, like others I think a round hole drilled will be a stream. But if you can use a die grinder with a really thin cut off wheel to nick the copper. Maybe that would leave a slit for wider coverage. Jon

 

[quicksandfarmer]

You can buy real fire sprinkler heads on Amazon for about six bucks each, probably less if you shop. These are the ones that open automatically at a certain temperature.

Around me fire sprinklers are now done with orange CPVC pipe. It can handle boiling water which is as hot as the pipe is going to get and still be useful.