Has anyone installed sprinklers on their roof? (for bushfire protection)

It's something I'm considering. I live close to the Scotsburn fires that happened in Victoria last season, I spoke to a building inspector that worked on the cleanup and she said only 2 houses survived the worst of it and it was because they both had sprinklers going to kill the embers.

There are some commercially available setups like http://www.emberdefender.com.au/ but I'd be looking at around $25k-$30k, which sounds excessive.

Has anyone here done it? Any advice?

Thanks

No, but sounds like a good idea.

Taking the advice from the other half here, who grew up in Bright (unofficial slogan "It's a beautiful place when it's not on fire"). You can, and most likely will, lose water during a major bushfire, anything that is dependent on a town water system runs the risk of failing right when you need it. He says they had a standalone system similar which had an independent water supply and a genset an they cost way less than $30k; $7k was about right.

The primary advice given was to get round drain pipes that you could block with a ball and fill up the pipes with water, and to keep your surrounds clean of debris. In the advent of a serious crown fire there's nothing that can help, have your evacuation plan ready.

Bushfires scare the living sh!t out of me. I'd much rather deal with cyclones up here than those things. Having to help bury the inlaw's stock after those Marysville fires convinced me I'd never move into an fire-prone area!

We considered it many years ago but didn't proceed because we weren't able to install a large enough independent water supply (our block is essentially an average size suburban block backing on to bushland).

The South Australian CFS have a very good information sheet outlining the factors you need to consider. It's fact sheet 409 - Sprinkler systems:

http://www.cfs.sa.gov.au/public/download.jsp?id=31043

The DS had sprinklers from a Creek source, made no difference. I saw homes in Gippy in 2010 some of which had sprinklers - made no difference there either as far as I could see - there was no rhyme nor reason about what survived and what didn't. The DS says that if he was to build in the bush again (fingers crossed he isn't going to!) he'd go underground. If you aren't prepared to evacuate I'd go for a decent bushfire shelter - the DS had one but he evacuated (sensibly) and all the stuff he'd stored in the shelter survived although he had thought that the house was well protected (everything in it incinerated but the walls were intact) but expected the shelter to be a big crater as he'd stored his ammo and kerosene in it.

Personally, having lived through the Canberra fires, worked on the Gippy fireground in Recovery and had the DS lose his house I would be moving far far away!

Having lived in an area in which the two closest other areas were wiped out, we long ago decided that any risk we would flee. Stuff is just stuff and can be replaced. I would spend the cash on making sure you have good insurance.

Our family has had first hand experience with bushfires and other than filling up gutters with water there isn't a lot you can do except leave and don't leave it too late either! Think melted washing machines, melted glass and dead animals. It is hotter than anything you can even imagine. I would never, ever try to stay and fight a big bushfire. You can't.

Has anyone here done it? Any advice?

Never did it myself.

But sounds like an exceptionally excellent idea, if you live in or near a bushfire area.

Great idea if you have a water tank or swimming pool I should think.

I once had to stand on my roof and spray it down with a hose as a bushfire approached. Really NOT fun.