Data Centres Fire Suppression Systems

The Purpose of a Fire Suppression System in a Data Centre

Data centres have an environment filled with electronic devices running at high speeds, plus the staff that intervene with all of the running systems. Although these are most likely highly capable staff and elite-level technology systems, there is still room for error with the amount of electricity being utilised. 

Data centre fire suppression systems for rooms such as their server rooms, IT storage rooms, switch rooms, battery rooms etc act as an involuntary fire protection service in the tragic event of a fire breakout. Server rooms and data centres serve an extremely important purpose for files, data, applications and storage infrastructure. 

Therefore, with the significance of this responsibility relying on the fact that these systems continue to work without any issues is a risk that you should not take if you’re in the data centre business field. 

If you were to install a fire suppression system for data centres, they will be able to extinguish a fire without any human intervention. You will no longer have to rely on reacting to this moment on impulse. Instead, you will be able to evacuate the building and let the fire suppression systems carry out their duty.

Different Types of Fire Suppression Systems For Data Centres

At MEPFire, employee health and safety is our main priority - thus, we’re going to walk you through all of the different types of fire suppression systems that you could potentially install in your data centre or server room. Here are the main systems you can establish:

Inert Gas Fire Suppression Systems

With the speciality of suppressing fires within electrical devices, the inert gas fire suppression system will be a perfect match for this industry for all your fire protection needs. These advanced techniques include using natural gas to protect certain fragile areas within your data centre. 

The way this occurs is by having the inert gas reduce the oxygen level in the room to the point where the fire burns and spreads across other devices. Now, you may be thinking that may not be safe for humans if they’re in the room. 

However, the oxygen level is still at a level where a human can evacuate in due time and the suppression system can work optimally to act against the ongoing hazard. Additionally, with a high pressure of natural gas being released into the atmosphere, this can also be tapered down to a healthy level using regulating valves.

Water Mist Fire Suppression Systems

Whether your staff are aware of the fire or not, if a water mist fire suppression system detects a certain amount of heat, smoke or even both - it will be activated promptly to prevent any further damage being done to your data centre or server room. 

With this automatic feature installed, this clever piece of technology that has been developed over the years has acted extremely effectively in data centres around the world. 

Not only will this water-based fire suppression system supply the cooling element to putting out a fire, but it will also generate oxygen absorption - attacking all facets of the fire triangle to secure as little harm as possible caused within the emergency.

CO2 Fire Suppression Systems

With carbon dioxide having the ability to displace oxygen by smothering the area, this is an extremely fast-acting suppression system. With fire relishing in the freedom that oxygen gives it, carbon dioxide has the opposite effect and extinguishes a fire. 

Depending on the amount of CO2 released will decide how quickly the fire will be overpowered. However, high-pressure cylinders of CO2 can be stored within the vicinity of the protected hazard. CO2 systems are typically deployed in usually unoccupied areas such as transformer rooms and switch rooms which are usually present in data processing areas.

Why Choose MEP Fire For Your Fire Suppression Systems

Here at MEP Fire, we have stressed the importance of fire suppression systems within data centres and server rooms - this way, the security of all members, data, and storage infrastructure will not be compromised in any unfortunate emergency. 

Our expert insight and innovation techniques within this industry have been revolutionary amongst our clients that have installed listed systems within their customers' data centres. 

MEP Fire’s integrity and experience will provide the perfect solution to what we feel will be the correct fire suppression system to implement in order to maximise safety within this high-pressure environment. 

Only the best is enough here, and focusing on all the minor details to assure the client consistently receives the best advice and products on the market for optimal results around the workplace is a huge part of our ethos. 

If you’re in the market for a fire suppression system within a data centre, we’d recommend you speak to our professionals here at MEP Fire to equip you with a plan moving forward. If you have an enquiry, call us at 01628 96830 or proceed to the ‘contact us’ section in the top right-hand corner of our website.