02-23-12 | Blog Post
Fires wreck things. The water used to put out a fire can wreck even more things. That’s why Online Tech has installed a FM-200 system and a dual-stage dry pipe sprinkler system in our newest Ann Arbor data center. When it comes to high availability hosting and ensuring data integrity, a fire and subsequent sprinklers can greatly compromise the quality of a data center and its services by causing electrical problems and a down network.
Alternatively, our waterless FM-200 system is designed to stop fires in seconds, meaning less overall damage, repair costs and increased safety while preserving a low level of downtime and business disruption for both our clients and our own business.
According to our fire protection professionals, the FM-200 (Heptafluoropropane) is also a safe, clean agent that won’t harm people, the environment or cause collateral damage to technical equipment. Unlike a typical fire extinguisher, the agent doesn’t leave any residue after deployment. Claiming to be EPA-approved and with a low atmospheric lifetime with no potential to deplete the ozone layer, the system is ideal for our data center.
[What is Heptafluoropropane? My curiosity and research dug up the history of Heptafluoropropane as it dates back to World War II, when the United States Army launched a project to find a different extinguishing agent after major fire damage and loss. They used to use Halon 1301, but a bromine atom in the structure also proved to react with the ozone layer, on par with damage caused by chlorine containing CFCs.
It was effectively banned by the Montreal Protocol (an international treaty intended to regulate production of ozone depleting-chemicals) for use in developed countries (Fire.NIST.gov). Thus, the naval research laboratory and other organizations like the Building and Fire Research Laboratory of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) needed to find an effective and non-toxic fire extinguishing agent replacement.]
Anyway – the FM-200 system is typically used on historical sites, and places in which minimal damage is required in the event of a fire, including museums, archive rooms, art galleries, medical facilities, etc.
Professional management of our fire, smoke, particulate and water leak detection systems is essential to keeping a high level of service excellence and preserving our facility quality to ensure your servers are always up and running, and to allow you to focus on your core business and applications.
Find out more about our Ann Arbor Data Center and our other Michigan Data Centers.
References:
Heptafluoropropane With Water Spray Cooling System as a Total Flooding Halon 1301 Replacement: System Implementation Parameters
Gas Encyclopaedia: Heptafluoropropane
