What is Fire suppression?
Fire suppression is a means of suppressing a fire. The design philosophy is to prevent combustion and allow human intervention to extinguish a fire before re-ignition. These systems should not be confused with fire extinguishing systems.
Where is it used?
Fire suppression systems are normally used in areas that require automatic fire protection and in considered hazardous areas that have critical uses such as main frame computer rooms/data centres etc.
How does this work?
Fire suppression systems work in two ways:
- Oxygen reduction: These are inert gas systems (meaning natural occurring gases) usually comprising of nitrogen, Argon and Co2 and/or combination of the aforementioned.
Synthetic/Chemical agents: This a blend of manufactured gases, these work by absorbing heat NOT - Oxygen. There are many varieties of this type of suppressant, each having their own advantages/ disadvantages.
What is the Best Agent Gas?
Depending on the environment it is to be used in, we need to decide on the right agent for the correct application. Considerations are made in respect to the room seal of this protected risk, storage space for cylinders, installation of distribution pipe work.(support plus structures), environmental impact, cost, etc.
Consideration Of Utilising a Fire Suppression System
- The risk must have an adequate seal! Most suppression systems require the extinguishing agent to be retained at the highest level of equipment being protected for a minimum of ten minutes from discharge.
- Storage space for cylinders, (Inert gases normally use more cylinders by volume than synthetic gases).
- Environmental impact. What is the users policy on Global warming, etc, etc? All agents have some level of environmental impact, depending on the size of the budget, the environment impact can be reduced, however, it is very hard to measure the actual impact to the environment, as most fire suppression systems are infrequently and randomly discharged!
