Using water mist to protect items from fire consumes less water than traditional fire sprinkler systems. To achieve the small droplet size, however, the system requires a high pressure water supply. Brian O’Connor from the National Fire Protection Association explains these systems and their various applications. 

In the March 2024 issue of my monthly newsletter, “MCA Talk,” I began to address the question of remaining relevant...

Understanding the intricacies of the drain, waste and vent (DWV) system is fundamental for anyone working in the plumbing industry. 

Your company’s ethical standards help guide your employees while giving your customers insight into how you conduct business. A well-planned PR campaign will help craft the right message so everyone knows what makes your company special.

Don’t be late when you promise customers that you will be at their location at a certain time. When you are inconsiderate and waste a customer’s time, it looks bad and you may lose that customer. 

System feeders are self-contained units with a pump, pressure control and liquid storage vessel. They are installed in place of a system’s fill valve, so the system isn’t drawing water from the potable water supply but rather from the system feeder’s tank. 

Previous sizing practices have routinely overestimated the required capacity of domestic water heating systems, relying on the Modified Hunter’s Curve to determine water systems sizing. Data-driven engineering, however, helps building owners and managers achieve new levels of safety, efficiency and cost/space savings for occupant needs.

Oversizing a domestic water system can lead to aging water and stagnation, the two biggest factors in waterborne pathogen growth. Yet modern plumbing codes still require or strongly recommend outdated sizing methods such as Hunter’s Curve, doing our building owners a disservice and putting the public at risk.

Changes are unavoidable in the built environment, even during the construction phase. Communication is critical between fire protection designers and life safety system installers.