Inergen fire suppression systems

Trifid

Trifid

Trifid

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Does anyone know about the health and safety side of things with these systems?

A little while back a contractor refused to enter our server room because we have one of these systems installed, unless we set it to manual release. This has then raised questions with management about whether we should set it to manual release every time someone enters the room. Now I am not an expert at these things, but I think that is a very bad idea. We have quite a few people go in and out of the server room and it wouldn't take long for someone to leave it in the manual setting over night and sods law that will be when it is needed.

Does anyone know of some documents supporting my belief? I tried searching through Google but my vague terms are not coming up with anything. :(

Thanks.
 
http://www.tycoemea.com/English/Products/Extinguishing/inergen.asp

INERGEN® has been medically evaluated and approved by leading authorities around the world. All of them have accepted INERGEN® as being safe for use in “normally occupied areas”. INERGEN® is the first Halon replacement to have been fully tested on humans.

With thousands of people having been exposed to INERGEN® with no ill-effect during test discharges, it has an excellent track record of safety in operation.
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Would think it'd be safe enough to have it on automatic.
 
Im an electrician and occasionaly work in server rooms, my company will not allow us to work in the rooms unsless they are set to manual. These are the reasons why as I have been told.

The reasons I suppose are accidental activation via dust (from drilling etc..) and the fact if it goes off they pressurise the room (not fatal/dangerous but not particularly pleasant apparently) also due to this if a door is left open the fire suppression is pointless and when set to man the doors can be closed off i.e on the way out.

The gas is less harmful than co2 (with co2 the oxygen has to be totaly replaced with co2 in the room) as not all the oxygen is replaced you can still breath but obviously there would be conciderably less oxygen in the room there for find it hard to breath although not dangerous.

basicaly:

Pressurises the room for a short time and replaces a lot of the oxygen in the room which makes it not a particularly nice place to be in if it goes off, also according to wikipedia the pressure change ruins hdd's which a contractor would not like to be responsible for if it was set off by accident.
 
I understand that it isn't pleasant if it goes off when you are in the room, but if I hear the fire alarm I'm not hanging about inside the room for it to discharge.

MeEsH BaKkA said:
Im an electrician and occasionaly work in server rooms, my company will not allow us to work in the rooms unsless they are set to manual. These are the reasons why as I have been told.

The reasons I suppose are accidental activation via dust (from drilling etc..)
Click to expand...

Is that, it has to be on manual override as soon as you enter the room, or when you are doing work? Say if you were in the room to survey and produce a quote for installing some 32 amp commando sockets, would it need to be off for that?
 
We've got 4 of them in my office alone, its a bit of a pain, but we have key holders for the manual lockout. Patching and stuff, walk in, set to manual, do the work, set back to auto, walk out
More intrusive work, like lifting floors requires a work permit and set system to manual.

Some of the guys that do the patching don't bother for the odd one, but I always do - it becomes force of habit - after all, I wouldn't like to be the one to set it off!

Also, keep in Mind that the rooms are pressure sealed so any new cables in to the room requre a re-seal and retest...
 
No it's not just incase of accidental set off, it's because it's not going to be a very nice place to be if it goes off anyway. There is no alarm then activation it goes off instantly so you don't have an evac time.

If I were to survey a commando socket install I would probably have to lift the flooring as mentioned above, which means I would be in the room for more than a couple of mins and doing so I could end up in a position not be able to leave the room in an instant, such as behind racks or prone looking under flooring.

I would want it off whilst I was on a job, what I can't work out though is why would it be an issue to set it to man? Contractor goes in set to man, contractor leaves set to auto... Just leave the key in the panel or get the contractors to report to you when finished.

For the sake of posible Ruptured ear drums and very distressed contractors being in a room with little oxygen for a 60seconds is leaving it on auto worth it?
 
One other thing if you take the minor injury and discomfort out of the argument for switching to man, if somehow a fire started whilst someone was inside, the inergen system would go off and begin to suppress the fire but as soon as the door opens the room fills back up with oxygen and the fire restarts but, this time there is no suppression system to put it out.
 
It's not a problem setting it to manual, would take no more than 10 seconds to do and of course I will follow the instructions to turn it off if I was required. I was curious if it was standard practice for IT staff in other data centres as this is the only place I've worked with such a system installed. I just thought it would have been more of a risk turning it off. I believe there is a audible warning for 30 seconds before it goes off to allow evacuation (and false alarms to be disabled).
 
we have an audible alarm that goes off 60 seconds before detonation, then another one just before the gas is released.
On the control panel there is also an emergency pull flap and press to release the gas. We've been told that if the alarm goes off and you put the key in to set it to manual it will still go off - so much safer to set it to manual....
 
We have a similar system in our server room but we never turn it off auto, ours gives an audible alarm about 60 seconds before discharge.

We have never had a problem with contractors or anything like that. But for our system to go off, the fire has to be in the server room, it does not go off if there is a fire in the other part of the building

Kimbie
 
In all the places that I've worked in, the business/premises owner stipulate that anyone entering comms/data rooms set it to manual. Any subfloor work usually involves isolating alarms.

On some of the better sites, by unlocking the door you switch the system into manual and by locking the door behind you flicks it back into Auto but to be honest I'd rather not work in an environment where it's still set to auto, and would in all fairness have done the same as the contractor. Not too fussed on seeing manufacturer tests stating the safety (because let's face it, they aren't going to make their product look too bad) but I wouldn't want to be responsible for a drop, possible damage and the recharge of the bottles.. let alone comfort/health reasons.
 
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I spent 2 1/2 years working in the datacentre of a large mobile telecoms provider.
If working in the normal space, it was left on auto. If you were accessing under the floor or in the ceiling space it had to be set to manual, and signed off with relevant autothorisation.

Just relocated elsewhere with a large datacentre and it's the same, if you working on kit it's on auto but access into the crawlspaces has to be manual.
 
We got one of these installed in our server room a couple of months ago and
we did the safety training course on it about 1 month ago

Only time it would ever get switched to manual is IF a contractor
was doing something like welding in the room that might trip the system.

Rest of time it is left on auto
 
Most systems can't be tripped accidentally, requiring multiple heat and smoke sensors to be activated and also giving an audible warning to hold off the extinguishant. No reason at all to out it on manual IMO

I've been in a room when its been discharged - unpleasant but I'm still here!
 
We have an Inergin system at work. Its got a 60second warning as people have suggested. We keep it on Auto all the time, and its tested every 6 months. Have an integrity check every couple of years also.

We have the info up on the wall about it, and it basically says its safe for humans (although as people have pointed out, anything thats bad for fire, is probably bad for humans, and wont be a pleasant experience.. would be interesting to see though... especially if its the boss hehe)
 
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