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Installing Halon Fire Supression System at Home?
swmagazine asks: "The house my family is building just burn down 2 weeks before competition. Now that the insurance is paying out some money, I am seriously considering installing Halon system at home because the house comes with a server room and I will be having at least 10 computers running in the house. I would like to know if anyone has experience with Halon system as well as the feasibility of installing such system at home." The possibility that your computer could conceivably be a fire hazard is extremely low on newer machines. Older machines, without the proper protection, may overheat, and that might cause problems. Might such a system minimize the damage posed by a house-fire, or are they too expensive (or too ineffective) for the average home owner?
Last time I piloted an M1A1 Abrams tank, great stress was placed on the oxygen-displacing effects of the halon fire suppression system. I would have the same concerns about a household halon system that I had in the Abrams. ex. You're in the most central part of your household and the halon system goes off. You're now [however] far from your front door and have what air you had in your lungs. Considerations for what might happen if it went off at night. Kids in the house? Hmmm..
TiFox
-- I'd say your post was about 3 monkeys, 18 minutes.
I have one word for you:
Sprinklers.
Actually I have many words for you, but that is the most important.
You must understand why server rooms use halon rather than water. Remember the fire triad: fuel, oxygen, heat. Rob the fire of any of those and it goes out.
Halon robs the fire of oxygen. Water robs the fire of heat (and to a lesser extent oxygen).
Halon is used in server rooms because you don't want the water damage to the servers. Otherwise water is MUCH better at putting a fire out, because you can use LOTS of it.
Now, if you are building a new house, and you want to reduce the risk of a fire burning it down, put in sprinklers everywhere in the house - it will be a LOT cheaper to set up and maintain than Halon, and it will do a better job.
Now, if you are going to build a dedicated server room in the house, then maybe you put a halon bottle in it, but not for the whole house.
www.eFax.com are spammers
If you are building in a fire prone area consider partially or majorly covering the building in earth. (A side benefit is your heating energy provider will hate you.) If the fire was an "accident" then you most definetly have a materials problem. Wood, while very attractive and cheap to buy & work with, is fuel. eg: Would you use compressed "fire retarded" straw or paper as a building material? (I wouldn't) It is supposed to be more fire-resistant than wood.!?
Consider naturally inert and fire resistant materials like concrete & bricks.
Then high risk/expense/maintainance fire suppression systems like halon become pointless. Ordinary smoke detectors can then be sufficient.
Using halon is such overkill and may even accidentally kill one of you loved ones. It's like having loaded 9mm handguns at convienent, accessable places around the (wood & paper) house to combat a roach problem when all you had to do was clean up your filth.
--
"we live in a post-ideological world..." - Billy Bragg.
You've got insurance? Then let em burn, cause a computer safe fire surpression system will cost more than the computers.
But the *DATA* is important to save. I'm guessing that since you're building a house, you've got a backyard. Why not build a seperate little shack for a server or two as an off site backup?
I can attest to this fact myself. At my employer's old building, there was a Halon system still in place. As far as I know, it was still useable by some sort of grandfather clause or some-such, but that's not the point.
If a fire broke out in the server room, first a very bright red light would turn on in the room, followed by rapid beeping -- this is phase one of the warning, which you had about 15 seconds to heed until the next phase.
After 15 seconds of THAT warning, a ear-piercing alarm would sound off in the room, and I mean ear-piercingly loud and high-pitched. A light would also turn on over the door to the server room with a sign reading "DO NOT ENTER -- HALON IN USE" near it. That's phase two.
At phase three, if you're still in the room, you're either now burning to death or suffocating, or both.
Sorry, but this has to be said... I realize that there are a lot of geeks/nerds reading this site who just love to play with the newest/oldest technology, either because it's cool, retro or hip, or because they want to actually learn something by doing. When I read an Ask Slashdot like this, I can only imagine the poster doesn't have their head screwed on straight and may be thinking this is the hip/cool thing they can install in their home server-room (home server room with ten systems?! WTF?!), and maybe call it a conversation piece here on Slashdot the next time someone brings up insane home setups. The fact that Halon was brought up -- something several people already pointed out as illegal and harmful to use -- just shows that this just seems like some Wahoo who did zero research into such a dangerous project.
Anyway, after that bit of Trollbaiting, I understand that a catastrophic event has happened with your original home, but please just remember that something like Halon is made to protect computer equipment. Use something that will protect people, for Godsakes.
Trolls lurk everywhere. Mod them down.
>>ozone depleting Halon
That's just knee-jerk enviromental scaremongering. What has a greater enviromental impact:
1) a Halon discharge which prevents a fire, or
2) a house burning to the ground?
Yep, that's what I thought. If you doubt #2 is the correct answer might I suggest that sometime, just for fun, you ask an environmental engineer about the remarkable volume of nasty chemicals, soot and particulates released as a result of burning carpets, padding, insulation, paint and misc. plastics which make up a modern home? That should remove any doubts.
But let's assume for one moment (contrary to scientific evidence) that Halon truly is damaging to the environment. What do you rekon happens to the refrigerant in the air conditioning system when a home burns down? Yes, that's right, it's vented straight into the atmosphere. Well, if you accept the enviro-nazi poposition that Halon is damaging then surely one must also accept the idea that air conditioning refrigerant also damages the ozone layer. So what's worse? A Halon discharge or a big nasty housefire AND a refrigerant gas discharge?
Finally, consider that in many states pressure-treated wood is considered toxic for purposes of disposal, requires special handling, and cannot be placed in a landfill. Burning it simply releases those toxins into the air. SO when that deck goes up in flames, it releases mercury, arsenic, and a host of other nasties.
The real risk of a Halon system not environmental -- the risk is *suffocation* due to an accidental discharge. Halon, being an invisible, odorless gas, will choke the life out of the homeowner nearly as well as it chokes out a fire. It's a system which requires regular professional inspection, testing and maintenance.