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--------------- TECHNICAL ALERT --------------- August 18, 2010 NFPA Issues Standards Council Decision on Antifreeze Systems in Residential Occupancies August 16, 2010, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Standards Council issued a decision on the proposed Tentative Interim Amendments regarding antifreeze in residential fire sprinkler systems. The council’s decision is to “… prohibit the use of antifreeze solutions within all NFPA 13D applications and within the dwelling unit portions of NFPA 13 and NFPA 13R sprinkler systems.” However, the Standards Council also directed that the responsible technical committees conduct further activities in regard to this question. As identified in the “AFSA Member Alert” sent July 7, NFPA issued a safety alert on antifreeze in residential systems July 6, 2010, following a research study and an initial set of fire tests after a fire incident raised concern. At it’s August 3-5 meeting, The NFPA Standards Council considered six tentative interim amendments (TIAs), two for each standard – NFPA 13, 13R, and 13D. One TIA said antifreeze shall not be used in dwelling units and the other restricted all antifreeze compounds to a maximum concentration of 50%. As a result of that meeting, the Standards Council has released TIAs 1000 on NFPA 13, 995 on NFPA 13R, and 994 on NFPA 13D effectively stating antifreeze shall not be used in dwelling units. Investigation Continues As indicated in the Council decision, this should be viewed as a moratorium. The Council urged the technical committees to address this issue again prior to the next Council meeting in Oct 2010. The Council also made a point of emphasizing that releasing these TIAs is not intended to be the final technical determination on whether antifreeze should be allowed or at what concentration nor is it intended to prejudge the merit of any further revisions. The fact that the report from the Fire Protection Research Foundation (FPRF) titled "Antifreeze Solutions in Home Fire Sprinkler Systems: Phase II Research Interim Report" (2010) was not available to the technical committees prior to their balloting on the TIAs had a significant impact on how this issue developed. Due to the emergency nature of this issue though, the Council had to act. Since it is inappropriate for the Council to modify an existing TIA or to write a new one, they took the most conservative approach and released the TIAs. The decision by the Council, the FPRF report and the TIAs are available at www.nfpa.org/antifreeze. The FPRF report identified that concentrations exceeding 50% by volume for glycerin and 40% for propylene glycol were not appropriate for use in residential sprinkler systems. One of the questions that the technical committees have to answer in defining a maximum concentration is how large a safety factor is necessary. AFSA will continue to work closely with NFPA and keep you informed on future developments. Complete information is available from NFPA at www.nfpa.org/antifreeze. ----------------- Technical Update is prepared by the Technical Services Dept. of the AFSA: Roland Huggins, a PE registered in fire protection engineering, Vice President of Engineering and Technical Services; Phill Brown, a NICET IV certified automatic sprinkler technician and NFPA Certified Fire Protection Specialist (CFPS) and Tom Wellen, a degreed fire protection engineering technologist. This is provided with the understanding that the AFSA assumes no liability for this opinion or actions taken on it and they are not to be considered the official position of the NFPA or its technical committees. Copyright © 2010, American Fire Sprinkler Association. All Rights Reserved -------------------------- If you’d rather not receive future faxes from AFSA, fax your removal request to Amy Sweeney at Efax (214) 242-3155 or call toll free (888) 839-4830 or send e-mail request @ [email protected]. Please include your company name and the specific fax numbers(s) at which you do not wish to receive faxes from us. Our failure to comply with your request may be unlawful. _______________________________________________ Sprinklernotes mailing list [email protected] http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklernotes
