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?

Comments

FM-200

[pci]

Well since no one, that I know of, makes ozone depleting Halon anymore, you may want to look at an FM-200 system. I still think this is a bit excessive for home use, most systems I've seen are more than >$10k after purchase and installation.

not halon

[Naikrovek]

halon is un-breathable. this means that if someone is in the house when the system releases its gas, that that person/animal is dead. it starves the air of oxygen.

I wouldn't do it.

the best prevention is to simply watch what the heck is going on with all the electrical stuff in your house and to simply not be careless. sure, all fires aren't preventable, but 99.999% are. Insurance and a good data backup solution will take care of the rest.

Re:not halon

[Dahan]

halon is un-breathable.

Depends on what you mean by "un-breathable." It's unbreathable in the same way that nitrogen is unbreathable, but I've managed to survive for a few decades breathing approximately 80% nitrogen/20% oxygen.

this means that if someone is in the house when the system releases its gas, that that person/animal is dead. it starves the air of oxygen.

No, that's not true. As the OSHA says, "Not acutely toxic at <10% by volume" and "Generally used at <7% by volume." The National Fire Protection Association agrees, stating that a concentration of 5 percent Halon in air is sufficient for most flame extinguishment. It doesn't work by removing oxygen from the air--CO2 and nitrogen flood systems do that. It works by actively interfering with the chain reaction of a flame.

As the OSHA site mentions, there are some downsides... breathing 15% or so for a couple of minutes might cause some irregular heartbeats in some people. Also, Halon decomposes into hydrofluoric acid and hydrobromic acid when it's exposed to fire. But then again, it'll put out the fire almost instantly (halon will even stop an explosion in progress)--the minute quantities of HF and HBr are much better than the large quantities of other toxic gasses that burning things put out.

But the bottom line is that no, you won't die if the Halon system goes off in a room you're in. I've heard that when Halon was first introduced, they'd demo it by putting a guy in a closed room and have him light a cigarette and candle, then dump in the Halon. The cigarette and candle would go out, and the guy would be in there with no ill effects.

Masks?

[poity]

Sorry, my knowledge of halon systems comes only from Terminator 2.

Sprinklers....

[wowbagger]

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.

Try Water

[fm6]

Right you are. Halon isn't particularly effective anyway. It's only used in machine rooms because it doesn't damage electronics. And even that usage is on the decline. Given the way computers collapse in cost, it doesn't make sense to spend a lot of money protecting them. If you want to protect your data, back it up offsite.

Consider the ordinary building sprinkler system. There's a reason you can't put up a new public building without one: they're damned effective. But they're also expensive. I don't think I've ever heard of them in a single-family structure.

Treat the cause not the symptoms

[Ratso Baggins]

Forget fire control for a moment, you have a construction material and/or site layout/placement problems.

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.

wha?

[resignator]

Halon is perfectly breathable. As a matter of fact, I'm huffing some at this verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrsadfffaa

Check your local fire and residential codes.

[muonzoo]

In a great many jurisdictions, Halon systems are not permitted in personal residences. They are a hazard to life and limb. The old server rooms we protected with Halon systems required 'life support' equipment in case you were in the server room when the system discharged.

Halon displaces the oxygen in the environment it is released into. This is NOT something you want to be doing in your house without sufficient research, and compliance with ALL local ordinances. Failure to do this could jeopardize you and your family. However, I'm sure your machines would survive.

Your insurance company would likely be less than thrilled at the prospect of you having an automated mechanism for discharging a gas that can asphyxiate you and yours.

Re:Check your local fire and residential codes.

[Gudlyf]

The old server rooms we protected with Halon systems required 'life support' equipment in case you were in the server room when the system discharged.

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.

Yeah, Halon

[the eric conspiracy]

I love it.

Halon is -

A trade name for a class of halogenated alkanes. Other trade names for these materials are Freon and Genetron. It is one of the classes of materials that has been proven to attack the ozone layer, with persistance in the atmosphere measured it decades. Manufacture of many types of Halon was banned by the Montreal protocol in 1987. Further legal restrictions were subject of the later Kyoto protocol.

The particular Halons used in fire extinguishment applications are 1301 and 1211. As of Jan 1 2003 refilling existing halon systems is banned in most of the world, and dismantling of all Halon fire extinguishing systems (including safe disposal of their contents) is required by Dec 31 2003.

Halon works by displacing the natural atmosphere in a room, reducing the concentration of oxygen to levels below that which will support combustion. Since the human body metabolizes sugars to sustain life by a controlled form of combustion, human metabolism will cease under the same conditions.

Halon, when exposed to fire or similar high temperature conditions will decompose into a variety of toxic gases that will generally cause traumas such as pulmanory edema.

It is illegal to install new Halon systems except in certain 'Critical' applications, mostly in aircraft fire supression systems.

For home applications involving electrical systems a good ABC fire extinguisher containing a dry chemical like monoammonium phosphate available at your local hardware store is the best choice. Use of fire resistant materials, elimination of clutter and especially adherance to electrical codes in your server room are also recommended to prevent fires in the first place.

Your most important fire control steps are prevention.

Resedential sprinklers are NOT expensive

[A nonymous Coward]

I was quoted $1.25 per sq ft several years ago. Even if prices have gone up to $2 sq ft, that's only 1 or 2 percent of the total cost. Pretty cheap for good protection.

Also, the very fact that you are thinking of Halon implies you want to put the fire out and preserve everything. That's a nice goal, but computers are cheap and easily replaced, and presumably you have offsite backup storage.

The point of fire protection is to give occupants time to get out and to stop the fire from spreading. Saving the structure itself is a nice side benefit. Saving minor contents is pure gravy.