What is aspirating detection and when is it worth it?

It is worth it in four situations. When you need to know very early, before there is visible smoke: data centres, control rooms, electrical panels, archives. When the air moves a lot and dilutes the smoke, which is what happens in any room with precision air conditioning. When the ceiling is so high that a point detector is no longer any use or cannot be maintained without an access platform. And when the detector cannot be in the place being watched because of temperature, humidity or because it is an area nobody goes into: the clear case is the cold store, where a point detector condenses and freezes and where going up to maintain it means stopping the store. There the pipe goes in and the detector stays outside.

It has maintenance of its own: filters that get changed, pipe that gets blown through and a check of the transport time, which is what really says whether the network is still doing what was calculated. The design of that network —lengths, number of holes and diameters— is calculated, not improvised on site; and in cold conditions you also have to solve condensation and ice, or the pipe blocks in the first winter without anybody noticing until the annual test.