Taming the Flame

Episode 7: Fireproof House
The Challenge: Protect a home from radiant heat from a forest fire and the flames themselves.

The Material: Nanogel, a cutting-edge insulating material, also known as “frozen smoke.” Supplied in granular form, it is a lightweight solid that flows like water and is often used in green building construction. It is the only insulator better than air, but how will the team harness it for this challenge?

What to Watch For: The heat that the team has to create -- 500-600 degree F radiant heat that preheats a wooden home almost to its ignition temperature, followed by 2,000-degree F flames that instantly ignite it.

When to Watch: Wednesday, Feb. 20, at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Get a reminder.

What You Missed: Be sure to read Deanne’s behind-the-scenes calculations from High Rise Escape-- The Magnetic Pull of Experimentation.

Photos: AP

Comments

[Howie]

This show is a joke. As if these clowns even had an inkling of the concept of thermal conductivity and combustion... The "scientist" has no scientific credentials, having just a Bachelor's in Mech E (read: qualifies her to be a technician at most company's) and the "engineer" has no listed engineering degrees, which makes him open to prosecution for fraud.

[Mathew]

Hey,
With the nano-gel. I think a better way to line the fabric material would be in horizontal solid forms. Say you're looking at the front of a house. Your contraption could unfold from infront of the house, drape over, and be secured.
left to right behind the fabric would be 1 ft high, say 30 ft wide panels of the solid, attatched to the back of the fabric. I made a drawing, if you want to get an idea of how I mean.
Or you could do the pocket thing, but it would be better with two sets. that way one would cover the others seems.

[Shorter]

Howie, i think that if you really have a problem with the show as you described, you need to watch something else. There is absolutely no need to come on here and complain like that.

This is the first time that I have had a chance to watch the show. The crew was saying that the seems with the backside flap would cause a problem. I was just curious if they had considered whether it would work with the convertible like top on both sides of the house locking both arms together in the middle.

[Rick K]

I am sorry but i have watched this show.I don't know where you got these guys on the show. The idea's that they come up with my granddaughter could do better and she is two. They lack common sense!!!!!!!!!!!

[joe]

I am curently watching "taming the flame". I agree with the solid panel thought from above, but I would align them vertically. This would allow them slide into position like a barn door or a separation wall in a conference room. This show has ZERO practicality for a livable solution.

[Brian]

I wonder why you chose to wire the grommets together with metal wire (that can melt)? I would have cut strips of the fire retardant fabric and used that as "string" to tie the seams together.

[Taylor Cnossen]

ok well your design is good and all but not 360 degree protection if u really want to protect the house you would make 2 canopys and have them fold all the way over like a bubble of protection

[Brad]

Why couldn't you make 1/4"x48"x96" pannels out of the Arogel? Hang them like plywood on the out side of your house and have some type of a sealing tape to tape up the seams. Then brick the side of your house in fire prone areas.

[RD]

why didnt they just make the whole cover go all the way over the house rather than just having it stop half way and have to piece it together, or just have the aerogel and carbon x cloth underneath the siding of a house or the walls be made of the aerogel and fiber cloth. they just need to have ideas that could actually work in real life not in some show...

[Brandon]

Unfortunately I'm in agreement with Howie. I have a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering as well and these people are a bunch of hacks. I can see the issues with their plans even before they start building full scale models. Any decent engineer would be able to point out the huge flaws. I am so glad these people are just on TV and don't work in industry anymore.

[Brian]

One more thing to add....if seams were/are that big of an issue, I might have taken the parachute design (one of the 3 original ideas) and reversed it. In other words, instead of dropping a parachute over the house, put a ring of the material around the base of the house and draw it up using a crane or some other system. Then, you could cinch the top with a lace system of sorts. I'm not sure if it would work any better, but you'd lose the vertical seams that way.

[Steve Shine]

"Deanne throws a curveball"

Perhaps the writers should have done some sort of research - perhaps even googled. It appears that playing with dollhouses now passes for research.

I’d be more likely to go on a 3-hour tour with “The Skipper”, “Gilligan”, “The Professor”, and “Mary Ann” than watch another episode of Smash-Lab.

I feel sorry for the cast. I assume the “cast” has to play along with the bad bad bad bad BAAAD premises that the writers / producers have put forth.

I’ve tuned in for a some of the shows since it follows MB – let’s not compare the two shows since I believe it is not a fair method - they are very different premises and appear to be run through completely different development and production “channels”.

So all that aside I’m not a devoted MB viewer however due to your scheduling it does lead me to watch SL until I feel the need to kick my dog – then I turn it off.

I’ve tried to watch a whole show – really.

I need to record a show so I can fast forward to the end and read the credits to see who is actually responsible for this product.

Good Luck and Cheers

[joe]

now im just a college student but my thinking with the aero gel stuff is to first and foremost attempt making it into a sheet of some sort, and if that is not possible i would then give serious thought to a scale design (like a snakes skin) which would result in overlapping sheets which should do the trick. as for the deployment method i liked it just why didnt it just continue all the way over the house to the ground on the other side?
as for the storage part i dont think that there is any real way to store any of these options in a way that would hide them as if they were not there.
now i understand these are professionals that actually get to work with the substances and would have an advantage in being able to tell if any of these ideas could work. i am not attacking any of the shows host im just throwing out ideas that i think may have helped.

[Chris]

I have a BS in Accounting, and even I could see this think was going to be a disaster.

Hmmm, spend a couple thousand more on homeowners insurance, or $50,000 - $100,000 on some massive fire blanket whose weight will probably crush the house.

On the next episode they should build a 50-foot fire extinguisher instead

[Courtney]

Honestly if the seam was the issue, you just have to flip the raw edges under twice, simple issue of sewing...

True story though you guys, they don't have much common sense, and apparently Zero research skills...

High school experiments are better researched and controlled...

[Dan]

I also think this show is a joke! I just watched the fireproof house episode and I was wondering, have any of these people ever heard of Thermo Gel?? Thermo Gel is the product used by fire departments and is recognized by the Dept. of forestry for fireproofing homes. It is a gel thats simply sprayed on the structure! My cousins home was saved from the Southern Calif. forest fire last year by thermo gel at a cost of $650.00!! Not $50,000 like these jokers are expecting people to pay and what kind of contraption are these people trying to make?? I dont understand how these producers can honestly warrant this show to continue!?? Well, just thought I'd share my 2 cents! Later.

[Gene Shiau]

I am with Taylor on that observation. Why drape a panel over the front and stitch the seams when you might just as well pull the aerosol-filled fabric all the way over the house like a dome?

[matty galed]

you guys got the right material (aerogel and black material)
to block the radiant was excellent. but all the testing and the ideas for developing the system to block the fire was very clumsy, nonpractical,and very costly.you should contact
my father he is brilliant/genius he can come up with ideas
in an instant and he can go to the smallest detail before
building/coming up with the system. basically he can think on
almost any topic you can come up with.TRY HIM (matty.galed@gmail.com)

[Drew Forbis]

The basic combination of the fabric and the gel seems effective , while the system of deployment needs a little work. They mentioned a car top on the show and should have stayed closer to it in design. Put a circular / oval concrete(fireproof) runner around the home, fit it with a solid dome of material( no seems ) ribbed with high strength supports that will open to cover the home in a dome, similar to a cars pop top only creating a solid dome with no seams. The concrete runner around the house fitted with latches will be effective below ground level since fire burns up not down, as well as the dome shape will be stronger against wind and debris.

[Amanda Mar]

What you all did for the fire proofing of the house, was cool, but not completely thought through. In order to have a possible successful trial use a simalar application, but without seams. Use the same application for the material, but the armature lift part of it needs to only be half a length of the house, and instead of it stoping at the high point of the house, let it completely cover the home from ground to ground. NO seams! Like a Slinky with fire proof material.

[Louis]

Please hire a REAL engineer. Engineers at top schools can do such a better job. Get an engineer with an advanced degree. Say a Masters or PhD from a top school in Mech/Aero/EECS. Not Industrial, they are the engineers who can't cut it doing real engineering. The designs dont start from 1st principles. All real engineering starts with 1st principles. Please fire your engineer and designer. Your scientist might have a chance.

One thing that Mythbusters does a REALLY good job with is when they dont know something well enough they talk to an EXPERT!! What a crazy idea!!

[Jake B]

I really hope that the writers or producers glance at this blog, there is some good insight here. I dont think that this show will get picked up, nor do I think It should! I guess I dont understand the Title of the show, "Smash Lab", I guess the writers werent thinking past the 2 episodes they had in the can related to smashing things? To agree with others sediments, I believe the cast is "not the sharpest knives in the drawer" maybe the producers got a bundled discount?

[jonathan ankers]

Well i just wacth the show and have one big problem with the flame profing the house one is that its not cost eafective nore did you do it right and one of the biggest thing that you have to think of when taking on a project like this is the seams the seams the seams seams are always a week point when doing something like this. like came about on the show your best bet for let heat hiting the biulding is that you should have found out how tall the struchure is take you gel and fabrice and make it so that you make a giant donnut around the house and where there is no seams but one the over laps it self but a few feet that makes only one seam wait one seam yes heat rises so as long as the materals say what you say the do then you shoud not need a roof struck shore well hope this help let me know .
jon

[James]

I really think this show needs some kind of victory. Has anything they have tried worked? I wonder if they are on such a short timeframe that they have to come up with the first idea that comes to mind. The sad thing is all the ideas are dumb. Most of the things they are trying to solve or fix already have better solutions available. Don’t you think the insurance companies have tried to think of ways to protect houses in California? I was really excited when I first heard about this show, but every episode has been very disappointing and really unresolved. I like the 50 ft fire extinguisher comment.. That was funny. I don’t think we will have anything to complain about in a few months.. I really don’t think this show will make it..

[Steve Shine]

And WTF is with the FLOWBEE haircuts? Fire your stylist NOW.