Safety is at the heart of any fire protection system. While safety is key, it is equally important to understand what will happen should the system discharge. In compliance with the British Standards, particularly BS8458:2015, the system must discharge water for a minimum period of 10 minutes in most homes and apartments, or 30 minutes in more residential application such as care homes or HMO’s. Surely, this is a lot of water, you may ask. In comparison to a traditional 55 lpm sprinkler system, the water discharge is extremely small with watermist, with the Guardian system flowing only 12 lpm throughout the whole system.

Lower flows and higher pressure also mean that the distribution pipework that runs from the pump to each nozzle can be much smaller; this not only means installation can be quicker, but often it is much less disruptive to retro-fit into an already finished home or property. Should you be at the first fix stage, flexible hoses also mean that we are able to work more fluidly around existing services depending on the stage of the build.

Constant technology advancements, such as flow and run time monitoring integrated within the system and automated mechanical pressure regulation, allow you to have one of the most refined systems currently available. Fire protection and life safety should not cause any stress or concern regarding performance of a system. This is why we have intelligent fault monitoring, self-testing procedures and timed activations to limit water damage from false activations, should one occur.

Building Control and Local Authorities are starting to accept watermist as a viable alternative more frequently, with some often giving favour to watermist rather than sprinklers. This is due to ongoing validation and performance testing, widespread acceptance of the new performance technology and lower structural requirements for buildings, as there are no large reinforcement works required to manage the weight of large water tanks. Also, considering that smoke alarms statistically only save lives in just over 50% of activations, watermist is a fully viable addition to your life safety and protection within your property.

Like all new advancements in life safety, watermist systems should be fully tested against the British Standard BS8458:2015. This shows the performance of the system is as it should be and fully certified. While validation reports are available for some systems on the market, the most reliable source of performance validation is for a full British Standard test report from an independent third party testing facility.

While a typical sprinkler system often consists of a large bulky pump set, a water storage tank and large bore pipework, watermist technology is much more aesthetically appealing and can be installed into a larger variety of spaces. With this new technology, your homes, apartments, and premises can be protected simply and more cost effectively when comparing to a standard sprinkler system.