PAH Design, Supply and Installation of Server Room A&B Fire Suppression System Specification

The NHS Princess Alexandra Hospital Trust needs to maintain the maximum availability of the IT infrastructures data processing ability as it is crucial to the Trusts operations.

The Trust therefore requires both server rooms A & B to have the highest level of fire and security protection in the entire building.

Very early fire detection will play an integral part in the fire protection and can enable operators to be quickly informed about any event so that all required technical and organisational measures can be implemented immediately.

Fire prevention is of course ideally based on the interaction of many different elements such as fire detection, evacuation, extinguishing and even BMS (Building Management Systems) to prevent the development of the fire.

The following things are critical for the Trusts own protection 1.

Very fast and reliable detection, 2.

Avoiding false alarms 3.

Providing rapid pinpoint event location to ensure appropriately deployed response, 4.

Reliable extinguishing of the fire.

Whilst the existing AFD system is generally reliable, it is not the best for very early stage detection and can also increase false alarms over time.

In order to accurately detect the lowest aerosol concentrations possible in such an area, an ASD (Aspirating Smoke Detection) system with very high sensitivity is to be installed in each server room for first stage fire detection.

An ASD can typically cover several hundred square metres so each of the Trusts server rooms can easily be monitored with one system in each.

We would also recommend the existing AFD and point type detectors are retained as their number and positions in the room add an extra layer of protection which is invaluable especially with the inherent ventilation conditions.

In addition to a new ASD and the existing AFD, a new automated dry extinguishing system using Novec 1230 inert gases or other suitable clean agent should be incorporated to provide the best level of protection for the delicate and expensive electrical and electronic equipment in the two server rooms along with the irreplaceable data they contain.

The new extinguishing system will need to be coupled with a suitable safety interlock to prevent discharge whilst the room is manned but with a manual release button that overrides this control and allows the system to be triggered manually should the need arise As a hard disk drive is noise sensitive it can easily be disrupted by the release of the extinguishing agent into the flooding zone so the contractor will need to carefully select and position discharge nozzles to avoid component damage in the event of a release, A silent extinguishing system could be utilised as this will reduce the noise level during a discharge in order to ensure data integrity.

It should however be noted that the system design of any automated extinguishing systems depends strongly on the size of the room and the structural conditions / integrity and it should...