Gas Fire Extinguishing Systems

ENGINEERED TOTAL FLOODING SYSTEMS

In doing business in the 21st Century we have come to rely heavily on automation to improve our efficiency and increase our competitiveness. This means we place a great emphasis on high value electronic equipment to perform tasks that can accomplish our desire to have efficient companies. In doing so, one only needs to ask the question, "What will happen to my company if my key electronic equipment fails?" The answer is simple, it could be enough to incur huge financial losses that may take years, even decades to recoup. In fact it could be enough to shutdown some companies.

Therefore, this puts it into perspective the risk of fire to a company and its high value equipment. Hence more and more businesses are increasingly looking at protecting themselves by protecting their high value assets against the risk of fire. These assets include server rooms that control key communication and financial activities, archive rooms that hold critical information, electricity supply components and switching centers to name but a few.

One of the effective ways in protecting such assets against fire is to use gaseous total flooding systems as a method. Essentially total flooding means you flood the entire room (sealed) containing the asset with a gaseous medium that will inhibit combustion and ultimately extinguish the fire. This method of fire protection has become the most popular solution among fire engineers and businesses alike.

Importantly though, businesses should consider the following steps to know exactly what total flooding system they are purchasing, how it will work and to ensure that it does work:

Check List When Considering an Engineered Total Flooding System:

• Selecting a gaseous flooding system that will extinguish a fire. This selection should be based on:
  • Is the system fully approved? Does it carry a full system approval to say it will perform the required task? Is there a valid certificate to show this?
  • What are the long term implications? How does the Kyoto and Montreal Protocols impact your decision? (i.e. could this system be phased out?) What does ISO 14520 say about the various total flooding systems?
  • How many cylinders are required and how cost effective is the system I am buying? How does it compare with other products?
  • What are the costs for refilling? Is this readily available? Are spares readily available?
  • How is the system designed? Is it designed to the correct standard?
  • Who is designing your gaseous total flooding system? Are they competent?

• Based on the above considerations, an order is placed based on the quotation from the contractor/installer.

• A set of flow calculations are done by the fire engineer based on a pipe layout, cylinder location and nozzle positions. This should all be based on the relevant engineering standards (i.e. ISO 14520, NFPA 2001).

• The flooding system should be interfaced with an automatic detection system that is designed and installed to the correct standard.

• The system should be installed to the required standard (ISO 14520 or NFPA 2001). Is the correct pipe used? Are the pipe fittings correct? Has the pipe been installed correctly?

• After the installation a room integrity test should be carried out to determine the room's rate of leakage. This is mandatory for all clean agent gaseous total flooding systems in the standard ISO 14520 Part 1 and SANS 306-4 for CO2.

• Based on the room integrity test, over pressurisation venting may be installed.

• The fire protection will be commissioned. What tests were carried out to ensure that the system will work in the event of a fire? Were these tests carried out to your satisfaction? What records do you have of these tests?

• Negotiate a service contract with a reputable specialist. Are you being serviced regularly? Are the servicing company carrying out the correct checks?

• In the event of a fire, the detection system will alert the control panel and begin the total flooding sequence. The gas will discharge and inhibit combustion, thus extinguishing the fire. • The gas should be retained in the room for a prescribed period of time to prevent re-ignition. Was a room integrity test done annually to ensure this?

• Post discharge, the servicing contractor will have the cylinders refilled. Do I need to purchase spare cylinders to ensure continuous cover while empty cylinders are being refilled?

Alien Systems & Technologies designs, manufactures and supplies Pyroshield and CO2 engineered total flooding systems. read more by following the links below.