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New vs Old Room Fire Final UL

jarhead96 · 460.3K views · 2010-12-18 · 5:59

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Overview

A short NIST-based demonstration places a room furnished with old natural-material furniture beside one with modern synthetic furnishings and burns both. The modern room reaches full flashover in a few minutes while the legacy room is only starting to spread.

On Hacker News

HN uses it as vivid proof that modern fires develop much faster, which is the argument for working smoke detectors and early escape.

Recommended by 2 HN people across 2 months · HN mentions 2017–2021

Topics

Home, DIY & practical skillsEveryday physics & science demos
Search by tags
fire behaviorflashoversynthetic materialssmoke detectorsnist

What people said

tharkun__ · 2021-08 · Recommendation

Like my sibling sort of did I want to point out that this possibly was meant to counter another trend. Unfortunately furniture nowadays burn much faster than before. They did an experiment. Built one room with old furniture made from solid wood and other "old style materials" and set it on fire. Then they built another one with modern materials with the typical particle board furniture. Set it on fire. Not many more words needed. Just watch: [VIDEO]

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WWLink · 2017-01 · Recommendation

In regards to the smoke detectors, I love that your department does that! I think what finally drove me to realize how important working smoke detectors are, is that video of a modern room flashing over in like 3 minutes. For those who haven't seen it, here: [VIDEO]

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DavidPeiffer · 2021-06 · Reference

Life involves risk. We also suck at evaluating risk, and statistics are helpful to a point. You only have one life to live. Life insurance companies spread the everyday risks across many people. Fires spread much faster than they used to because of changes in building materials [1]. I figure if I can find a way to shut it off automatically, it'll buy me 30+ seconds, which is a big deal. I found [2] awhile back, which is what I want, but I'd happily pay for a COTS solution. [1] [VIDEO] [2] [LINK]

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Sources

Video by jarhead96, played through YouTube.

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