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Re: Southern California Fires
Brian,
They already have pumps, and main drains (most pools have main drains) so they could suck every last bit of water out of those pools, all they would have needed was a small generator to big enough to run the pump and a separate sprinkler pipe system going up to the roof.
They could have manually switched some valves from the pool piping system to the roof piping system, switch the pump over to generator power, and have had a good chance to save their homes. Would not take a large volume of water, just enough to keep wetting it as things fell on it, that would also make the pool water last longer.
Let's say you are pumping 600 gallons per hour (that's 10 gallons a minute), and an average size pool is 15,000 gallons (those pools are likely much larger - say 18,000 gallons minimum average), that means you could pump for 30 hours. Install a cycling timer which pumps 5 minutes on, 5 minutes off, that would stretch the time to 60 hours. Figure two days protection of 48 hours and you could pump for 5 minutes on and 3 minutes off (not doing the math, just guesstimating).
Generator = $1,500
Sprinkler system = $500
Controller = $150
Installation = $1,500
Cost = $3,650 add in overhead and profit, plus advertising, plus ... , plus ... , and you get a retail price of $10,000
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