Through an apparent conflagration of forces, sprinklers are being specified in more and more data centers. These forces include the cost of gaseous clean-agent suppression, an increase in the physical size of colocation data centers, and the implementation of reliable fire detection and communications systems. The sprinklers being specified often are not dry-pipe, pre-action sprinklers but good old-fashioned wet-pipe systems, which were frowned upon in the past. Wet-pipe sprinklers seem to be winning against pre-action systems because of a belief that a concealed sprinkler head offers the best balance of reliability, performance and cost benefit over the system’s life. These forces are strongest in the mega data centers, where the capital expense of a multi-million-dollar, clean-agent system and the risk of a million-dollar false dump can’t be tolerated. The use of traditional sprinklers places more responsibility on very early warning fire detection systems, but it appears that the fire community thinks ASD is up to the job.

The introduction of air-side economization (“economy cooling”) is a smart and efficient way to reduce your data center’s carbon footprint and lower your energy costs. But have data center designers considered the risks of exposing mission-critical and highly sensitive servers to the risks of contamination from poor quality air?

If a brush fire were burning nearby or building maintenance or construction were underway, would the suppression system inadvertently activate? What would the impact of smoke and dust be on the longevity and performance of the IT or telecom equipment?

The use of smoke detection at the “fresh” air inlet is needed to detect external fire sources. Air-sampling smoke detection allows reliable detection of external sources of fire in the high airflow at the fresh-air inlet and enables you to do something about the risk. Dampers can be closed, and internal detection systems can negotiate adjusted alarm levels to ensure there are no unwanted suppression releases.

Your data center can be green and stay clean!

Four growing trends in today’s data center are very topical for an IT and telco facility manager, but which appear not to have been sufficiently debated in the fire protection community. They are:

• Air-change rates are up, causing a non-compliance of the smoke detection system.
• New airflow topologies are hiding fire risks.
• Economy cooling/air-side economization is heightening the risk of smoke contamination.
• Sprinklers are back in the data center.

We’ll address each of these trends in a series of future posts. Today, let’s look at the first regarding air-change rates.

Heat densities in the average data center have quadrupled in recent years. Increased heat densities need more cooling capacity, typically delivered through cooled air. Delivering all that air has massively increased the air-change rate in the data center. It’s getting very windy in there.

NFPA 72 requires increased density of point (spot)-type detectors in the case of higher data center airflow. If you have upgraded or augmented your precision cooling systems since you installed traditional point (spot)-type detectors, then your data center may now be non-compliant. Getting compliant will mean a significant investment…and where will it end?

At the highest air-change rates, you will need to have more than seven times the standard number of detectors in the space. That is seven times the investment and seven times the inconvenience and risks of routine testing and maintenance above your mission-critical equipment.

Why do the codes dictate this? Is this extra investment worthwhile, and does it help improve detection performance? Do other options exist that will enable you to stay code- compliant into the foreseeable future as well as provide real early warning protection from fire?

The FPRF is considering a study on these questions that might improve certainty of code compliance and cost efficiency of detection. Did you know that air-sampling smoke detection systems (ASD) have an exemption from this code requirement? They stay compliant whatever the air-change rate – with significantly reduced costs.

Data center designers really need to implement systems that stay code-compliant into the foreseeable future and will actually provide real early warning protection from fire. ASD enables that.