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Friday, December 28, 2012

Misting Kits

We mentioned that we recently had a Colorado State Forest Service audit.  The auditor was a gentleman that retired from the U.S. Forest Service as a trainer of wildfire fighters and also a crew leader.  He worked for the State of Colorado subsequent to his retirement and then retired from there.  He didn't like retirement so he agreed to do the wildfire audits for the CSFS which is what brought him to our home.  You receive a grade with the lower the score being excellent (45 points).  Anything below that number is beyond excellent and we scored a 35.  We did have one area of concern and that was our deck. 

Flying embers land on a deck and catch it on fire and the fire spreads to the house. Tim told me that other areas of the country use misters and turn them on before they evacuate.  He said that the mister does not drain a domestic well because they use a little amount of water but keep the area wet so embers fizzle out when they come in contact with the wood.  The alternative is composition decking which is very expensive. 

I located a misting kit on line at http://www.advancedmistingsystems.com/misting_kits.html, that run from $40.00 to $120.00 from Advanced Misting Systems Inc.  I checked with their technical support to see if they knew about using them for wildfires and was advised that they had customers that did use them for this purpose. They set up in a few minutes and keep the deck/patio wet to keep sparks from catching the wood on fire.  Another good feature is that they don't use much water, are low pressure and won't drain a domestic well. I was also told some people have theirs installed so they can turn them on if they are not home by telephone. That may be too advanced for me but sounds like a good option.   

These make a lot of sense and I have never heard of this technique before the CSFS auditor told me about it. Also, having a misting system that can be used in case of wildfire seems a cheap alternative of watching your home go up in flames on TV if you are forced to evacuate. This was simply too good of an idea to not share with others.     

2 comments:

Carol said...

Jane wrote:

Yea, these misters are everywhere in Arizona, since we’re just trying to keep cool in the 115 degree weather! good idea for fires, though….

Anonymous said...

Here in GA we use misters and/or Swamp Coolers (as in AZ). I run a soaker hose across the roof of my rabbitbarn and it works the same but uses more water. I have it on a timer and it cools my barn in the heat of the day by about 15 degrees. Swamp coolers are available thru Graingers and the misters are available at SAMS but on a seasonal basis only. HTHs. Becca