Citation

Alimzhanova M, Spearpoint M, Jomaas G. Fire Safety J. 2022; 129: e103565.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.firesaf.2022.103565

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A J-value assessment was carried out to quantify the costs and benefits of sprinkler system installation in car parks, both with respect to life safety and property protection. Nine scenarios were established based on collected input data. All car park types were considered for the USA, England, Scotland, Wales and the UK nations collectively, while separate considerations were made for multi-storey car parks (MSCPs) in the UK and for MSCPs, underground and other parking types in England. Even when assuming 100% sprinkler effectiveness, the J-values for the nine scenarios were all larger than unity (ranging from 5 to 555), thus indicating that the installation of sprinklers is not a cost-effective investment for car parks from a societal point of view. The analysis showed that different car park types must be treated separately, due to specifics of structure and fire statistics. The lowest J-values were obtained for MSCPs and underground car parks. Sprinkler installation mainly provides property protection benefits, because of property loss savings substantially outweigh those associated with life safety. Even though sprinklers were not cost-effective for car parks in the current analysis, the scarcity of data and new emerging technologies suggests that further investigation is needed.

Language: en

Keywords

Car parks; Cost-benefit analysis; J-value; Life quality index; Sprinkler systems