Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning we get a small commission if you make a purchase through our links, at no cost to you. For more information, please visit our Disclaimer Page.

Water release quick response sprinklers are designed to release a significant volume of water in a short period of time. These sprinklers are intended for emergencies when water conservation isn’t important.

Quick response sprinkler systems uses roughly 20 GPM to 26 GPM. QR sprinklers have a similar system to standard ones, but have a few characteristics that changed. The water pressure is higher, and the nozzles orifices can have a different shape; all these differences affect water consumption.

Table of Contents

Do Sprinklers Use A Lot of Water?

Sprinkler systems are pressured water systems that can spread water over extended areas. Sprinkler systems are made of pipes, plumps, and sprinklers.

Whether it is a quick response system or a standard one, all the sprinkler systems work similarly. Moreover, they have different functions, and you use them for watering the grass and flowers in your garden or as a security fire-prevention system.

The system plumps water over the pipes until it reaches the sprinkles and spreads water jets over the area. Sprinkler systems can cover more areas with higher water pressure; however, they withstand a specific pressure or the system may collapse.

Sprinkler systems consume lots of water. A sprinkler system can use over 12 gallons of water per minute! That is equal to a five-minute shower. Sprinklers will help you to keep the garden perfect, but the water used by them could be spent wisely.

Sprinkler irrigation systems are popular nowadays. The installation is affordable, and the materials needed to create a sprinkler system are not expensive; even the maintenance is cost-effective, yet sprinklers use lots of water that make them quite costly to keep themselves.

Nevertheless, people are up to buying a sprinkler system if they can do it. The truth is sprinklers will free you of being standing with a hose under the sun for long minutes.

Sprinkler systems make it easier to water big spaces, so they are highly used professionally. Decades ago, farmers used sprinkler systems like those we have at home. Nowadays, they have a whole automatized system that can be controlled.

How Much Water Release Quick Response Sprinklers?

Some people can consider irrigation sprinkler systems as an excess or unnecessary. Yet, we can’t label it together with a sprinkler system for garden watering and sprinkler systems for fire prevention.

Sprinkler systems for farming help to automatize and enhance intensive farming processes, and sprinkler prevention systems help save people’s lives! Irrigation sprinklers for our home garden are helpful but not completely necessary.

Quick response sprinkler systems use around 20 gallons per minute; though, the water rate can vary from 8 GPM to even 26 GPM.

The Sprinkler system indeed uses much less water than fire hoses; the latter uses around 110 GPM. Moreover, fire-prevention sprinklers detect fire automatically and are activated when the room temperature reaches 155° – 165° F or 68° – 74° C.

Fire sprinklers have helped to save lives all over the world. Fire stations have a quick response time; they need over 10 minutes (or less) to reach the emergency place. The emergency services receive the emergency and send the instruction to the fire station near the emergency. Yet those 10 minutes matter.

Fire can expand fast, and while the firefighters arrive, the fire can be hard to control. Fire sprinklers are activated when the room temperature reaches 68° C that in combination with smoke alarms can help to save many lives.

The sprinkler heads work individually, so they will activate only in the area when the temperature has reached the limit.

How do Fire Sprinklers work?

As irrigation sprinklers, fire sprinkler systems are composed of hoses, pipelines, plums, and sprinklers. The sprinkler heads spray the water like rainfall, so they can cover an extended area and reduce the fire better. Moreover, fire sprinklers have a heat detection system.

Fire sprinklers detect the heat, and the system is activated. Fire expels hot air, so once this reaches the system sensors, the sprinklers are activated; however, this hot air should be around 68° C to trigger the system. Then, the fire can trigger the system itself if it is big enough.

Your stove doesn’t trigger the system because the fire source is not big enough; then, the air in the room dissipates the heat, so when this air reaches the sprinkler sensors, it is not hot enough to trigger it.

For a somewhat similar reason, fire sprinklers don’t use smoke sensors to activate the system. Let’s say that I burned my cake! There will be a lot of smoke, any fire, and any real emergency. Yet smoke sensors are helpful to prevent a dangerous situation.

Quick Response Vs. Standard Response Sprinklers

Quick and Standard response sprinklers have similar systems; the main difference between both types of fire sprinklers is the heat sensor limit.

Quick response sprinkler heads have a 3mm glass bulb, while standard sprinklers have a 5mm glass bulb (thicker looking bulb).

So, quick response sprinklers have a higher thermal sensibility, as result, the response time is faster.

The thermal sensibility is higher on QR sprinklers, yet they have a few characteristics that also change. The water pressure is slightly higher, and the sprinkler head orifices have a different shape. Moreover, the water distribution and installation orientation may vary according to the model.

What Is the Average Flow Rate for A Sprinkler System?

Regular irrigation sprinklers have a water flow rate of 4 gallons per minute to even 26 GPM. However, the rate flow can vary according to the sprinkler head model and the water pressure.

Furthermore, the water pressure can go from 30 psi to 70 psi, yet the ideal pressure is around 60 psi; more pressure can damage the nozzles or valves.

There are several sprinklers models, so the flow rate will vary according to their design and the system itself. Yet those minimal differences in the design and model can affect the flow rate, so if you are thinking about installing sprinklers at home, but care about water consumption, check the different sprinkler types to decide which one suits you better.

Let’s get into fire sprinklers first. There are two types of fire sprinklers; quick response and standard ones.

The primary difference between both systems is their thermal sensibility; QR sprinklers are more thermal sensibility than standard sprinklers, so their system is activated with temperatures lower than 70° C.

Moreover, the nozzles are different, and the water pressure too.

Now, you can find different sprinkler head models on the market. The plants have diverse watering processes, and some need different water quantities.

Your watering system can adapt to the plants you have at home; because of it, there are the following irrigation sprinkler systems:

Spray Irrigation Nozzles. These could be considered as the traditional or standard sprinkler head. A spray nozzle uses around 1.2 GPS to 4 GPS at 35 pounds per square inch.

Rotary Irrigation Nozzles. The rotary nozzles cover from a quarter of a circumference to the whole 360°. Moreover, the shape of the nozzles is similar to spray nozzles. Rotary nozzles use from 2 GPS to 5 GPS at 30 – 45 psi (pound per square inch).

Bubbler Nozzles. They spray big amounts of water in less time, so they need more water pressure. Bubbler nozzles use a minimum of 2 GPM at 40 – 50 PSI.

How Do You Calculate Water Demand for Sprinklers?

To calculate the water demand of a nozzle sprinkler we need to know the values of the density and the demand area. That is, how much water a nozzle sprinkler will release in a specific space.

The formula to calculate the water demand is the density multiplied by the demand area. The density is the amount of water that sprinklers use in the demand area per minute. That is GMP/ft. The demand area is the space we measure in square feet.

By applying this formula we can measure the water demand for the sprinklers.

Quick Response Sprinklers have a flow rate of over 16 GPM to 18 GPM.

Standard Sprinklers have a flow rate of even 26 GPM, yet some low-flow fire sprinklers use over 20 GPM.

Conclusion

Irrigation sprinklers use lots of water — water that we can use wisely. But, in an industrialized process, irrigation sprinklers systems are mechanisms that enhance the watering process and give farmers better control for water consumption.

But we need fire sprinklers since they can save our lives. Fire can expand fast, and while the firefighters arrive, fire sprinklers are triggered and help to reduce the damages.