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Interesting, one of the guys that worked on my Uni's DC told us that the fire suppressor system is interlocked: to enter the DC, you need to open a door using a
by frabert 6y ago
Interesting, one of the guys that worked on my Uni's DC told us that the fire suppressor system is interlocked: to enter the DC, you need to open a door using a key. Upon opening the door, the fire extinguishing system is disabled, and is only enabled when the door is closed. The people working in the DC are supposed to keep the key on themselves. Also, they used Halon 1301 instead of Argon as the gas.
- mark-r 6y agoHalon is a CFC and isn't legal anymore due to international agreements.
- frabert 6y agoI must have confused it with some other fire suppression system I heard of, then!
- mark-r 6y agoOh Halon was very popular for a long time. I don't know how long they could be grandfathered, but recharge supplies must be impossible to get by now.
- chipsa 6y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_agent_FS_49_C2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_agent_FS_49_C2 Looks like there's a drop in replacement for Halon.
- sbierwagen 6y agoAmusingly, tetrafluoroethane and pentafluoroethane are themselves being phased out in refrigeration applications because of their sky-high global warming potential, thousands of times worse than CO2.
- Y-Bopinator 6y agoIf they have 10000 gallons of it, it doesn’t wear out. It just stays bottled up.
- myself248 6y agoYeah, you can't install new Halon 1211 systems, but it's still out there. New systems are usually FM-200 or Inergen, which I believe can use the same plumbing as Halon. Older systems, before Halon was invented, are typically CO2 or Argon. They require a lot more agent to accomplish the job, but they're very simple. I worked briefly in a CO2 datacenter. It dated from the mainframe era, and had some gorgeous mementos on the walls. There were SCBA packs in the hallway outside, and everyone got a brief safety lecture before being allowed into the facility. The point I remember was basically "The alarm will sound intermittently for twenty seconds, then go solid for five, before discharge. If it goes off, do not stop to save your files, just run for the door. If you're not outside yet when the solid tone sounds, hold your breath and run on what's in your lungs." Apparently the CO2 is considerably nastier than Halon to get a lung-full of...
- mark-r 6y agoYes, carbon dioxide is not biologically inert like Halon is. It's the signal your body uses to say it's out of oxygen. You will definitely react negatively to getting a lung full of it.