Moving forward with HFC-227
As many of you know, the company I work for is moving to a new building in just under a month. My responsibilities on this project primarily relate to information technology issues. However, IT is more than servers, switches, routers, and phones. I’ve also been involved with physical security, backup electrical power, and fire suppression.
We have a small on-site server room. Most of our mission critical gear is contained at a colocation facility nearby, but that doesn’t mean we don’t care about keeping the local server room online. In fact – our strategy depends on it. We’ve covered power availability with a central UPS and a diesel generator. But how do we keep an equipment fire from taking us out for weeks or months?
Initially we installed a pre-action system. Pre-action sprinkler systems are for use when accidental activation is undesired (like server rooms). Ours is a double interlock pre-action system. This basically means that a combination of fire-related events must take place before water is discharged. Not only will you be dumping water on very critical (and expensive) hardware, but it can take a while for all of those fire-related events to happen. A ten minute fire in a server rack could ruin everything we want to protect. So enter HFC-227 (more commonly known as FM-200).
HFC-227 is a gas that has the ability to extinguish fire when released into a space at a 7% concentration. The best part is it safe for people and electronic equipment. It can also put out a fire much faster than any water-based sprinkler system. Sprinklers protect the facility. The gas protects the equipment we install in the facility. HFC-227 was the first non-ozone depleting replacement for Halon 1301. Our system will be installed prior to our move in late July.
The video below is a demonstration of an FM200 system being discharged.