We have reviewed NFPA 13, 2016 edition as the applicable standard. Our informal interpretation is that when residential sprinklers are installed within a compartment, all the sprinklers shall be of the residential type.
The text regarding this issue changed starting in the 2013 edition of NFPA 13. This states in 8.4.5.3, “Where residential sprinklers are installed in a compartment as defined in 3.3.6, all sprinklers within the compartment shall be residential sprinklers.” The new text referenced “shall be residential sprinklers” where the previous text removed was “shall be of the fast-response type that