Ron, I felt compelled to point out the code requirements. Unlike your analogy there are those that actually test waterflow switch and deem it a vane type waterflow test by merely moving the actuator arm couple with sprinkler contractors who are afraid of tripping the building fire alarm by blocking the movement of the actuator arm. Just wanted to make sure no one thought otherwise.
Sincerely John Drucker Fire Protection Subcode Official Red Bank, NJ -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ron Greenman Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 6:36 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Concurrent Testing John, I was just throwing out hypotheticals and not intending to be the prophet. My point was that testing is for a purpose beyond itself and before deciding that two tests are equivalent you have to determine what each is looking for. Maybe the same thing, maybe the same thing in part and maybe totally different things. A case in point would be "a backflow test" which means exactly opposite things depending on whether you're the sprinkler guy or the backflow guy. Procedures, as you've shown, can help define the test and certainly proscribes the procedure. Perhaps I should have stayed away from 72 and 25 and just stuck to my light analogy. Are we testing for light (does it occur or not)? Are we testing to see if the bulb is in good order? Are we testing to see if electricity gets to the socket? Are we testing the electrical operation of the switch? Or are we just testing to see if the lever moves from down to up when pushed? I know every morning when I operate my light switch whether or not the interior BPA system is up to speed. Back a few decades ago we accidently tested what would happen should a cascading overload occur in the Northeast due to the failure of an overloaded shunt relay. Now that was a test. On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 2:24 PM, John Drucker <[email protected]> wrote: > 2007 NFPA-72 Table 10.4.2.2(i) Test Methods > Mechanical, electrosonic, or pressure-type waterflow device > Water shall be flowed through an inspector's test connection indicating the > flow of water equal to that from a single sprinkler of the smallest orifice > size installed in the system for wet-pipe systems, or an alarm test bypass > connection for dry-pipe, pre-action, or deluge systems in accordance with > NFPA 25, Standard for the Inspection, Testing, and Maintenance of > Water-Based Fire Protection Systems. > > 2007 NFPA-25 5.3.3.3 > Testing the waterflow alarms on wet pipe systems shall be accomplished by > opening the inspector's test connection. > > 2007 NFPA-25 5.3.3.3.1 > Where freezing weather conditions or other circumstances prohibit use of the > inspector's test connection, the bypass connection shall be permitted to be > used. > > Hope this helps > > Sincerely > > John Drucker > Fire Protection Subcode Official > Red Bank, NJ > > > _______________________________________________ > Sprinklerforum mailing list > http://lists.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum > For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] > > To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] > (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field) > -- Ron Greenman at home.... _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list http://lists.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field) _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list http://lists.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field)
