Data centres are vitally important to our modern life, whether the data centre is a colocation (Colo) Managed Services, Cloud, Managed Hosting, Edge or Enterprise, unplanned downtime is something every data centre manager dreads.

With data centre fire suppression systems from SolarFire Systems, you can protect your assets and your business from the damage which fire can cause and minimise your data centre downtime.

Types of Fire Suppression Systems

Option 1: Inert Gas Extinguishing Systems

Inert gas fire systems once activated lower the oxygen level in the room to a point where the fire is extinguished but is safe for you and your employees.

Commonly used inert gasses for data centres are IG-55 (Argonite®). IG-55 is an inert gas blend of argon and nitrogen, which occur naturally in the environment. With zero ozone depletion potential ODP, zero Global warming potential GWP and zero atmospheric lifetime, it has excellent environmental properties. A typical design concentration of 40% will reduce the oxygen level to 12.5% within 60 seconds.

Another gas is IG-541 (Inergen®). IG-541 is a mixture of 52% Nitrogen, 40% Argon and 8% CO2. However, in the event of a fire, when IG-541 is discharged, it mixes with the air present in the room to create a mixture that comprises of 67.3% Nitrogen, 12.5% Oxygen, 17% Argon and 3.2% Carbon Dioxide. As with IG-55, the mixture of gasses will reduce the oxygen levels down and extinguish the fire and will be safe for people within the room.