[Old Professer]

I can't think of a single reason why this wouldn't be a suitable "extinquisher" for an orninary-sized nursing home room.

I am placing it here mainly for comment and to register the idea (date and time stamp).

If I am out of order, I apologize.

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[Old Professer]

"orninary" should be ordinary, sorry.

[So Cal Rocket]

connected to an 80Cubic Foot gas bottle charged to ~2300PSI

It should work, so long as the fire gets to the sprinkler head before it gets to this bomb.

[Retired Chemist]

Not much good if the building burns down around the room! How many of the deaths in Nashville were from smoke inhalation?

[supercat]

Water is used in conventional sprinkler systems because it is reasonably effective, but more importantly because large amounts of it can be delivered easily and cheaply. If the extinguishing agent isn't going to be supplied by mains, it may make sense to use something else as an extinguishing agent.

What would be the effect of using CO2 rather than air to pressurize the water? This would seem to have a number of advantages: (1) CO2 will liquify at IIRC about 1,000PSI allowing better density than air at 2,000PSI; (2) if the CO2 dissolves in the water, it would effervesce upon hitting the fire, acting as a useful additional extinguishing agent; (3) CO2 storage tanks are quite common in soda-fountain applications and may be cheaper than air storage tanks.

Otherwise, even if you don't like CO2, I'd suggest that pure water probably isn't the best extinguishing agent; some sort of foam (water-based or not) could probably do better. What would happen if you threw some dish detergent or other such stuff into the water tank?

[Chummy]

Would this involve having 75 gallon water heater tanks, etc. for each individual room? How does one safeguard the common areas, eg, dining halls, hallways, restrooms, support facilities for the building?