Halon Fire Supression

[akadeadeye]

Has anyone had a false alarm discharge?

I am told these units are set to discharge at 165 degrees ambient. That's hot, but in the hottest of places in the heat of the summer, with the refrigerator generating some heat in that compartment, it seems that the ambient compartment temperature could approach the discharge trigger.

Am I full of hot ambient air?

Don

[mikron]

A 165 sprinkler will go of as low as 145. Halon has also been baned for over 20 years, they now use FM200 gas.

[SCVJeff]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikron A 165 sprinkler will go of as low as 145. Halon has also been baned for over 20 years, they now use FM200 gas.

The manufacture of Halon has been banned, not the sale of units containing Halon. According to those in the biz there is enough Halon to last a lifetime.

Anyway, I have one in the fridge compartment and it has no issues at all, nor have I ever heard of one falsing nor has the manfacturer who I asked this question. Even though I'm not interested in a false release, they said if it ever false tripped, they would repair and refill for free.

[wa8yxm]

Quote:

Originally Posted by akadeadeye Has anyone had a false alarm discharge?

This is a mixed response question... Since I do not have an RV system I'd have to answer no.

However before I retired.. The office where I worked,,, Well the room behind me contained a fairly large and complex computer system.. Serial number 000001 and far as I know there was no 000002 (yes, it was a prototype) It was protected by a Halon system and cooled by a Lippert comptuer room noise maker.. ur, HEAVAC system.

The Lippert sprung a leak

Freon "Smells" like smoke to a smoke detector.

When the detector detected what it thought was Smoke over 3 grand worth of Halon was discharged into that room since nobody had ever told us how to override the system.... By the time I retired... Several of us knew where the override switch was to make sure it did not happen again.

[jcthorne]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SCVJeff The manufacture of Halon has been banned, not the sale of units containing Halon. According to those in the biz there is enough Halon to last a lifetime. Anyway, I have one in the fridge compartment and it has no issues at all, nor have I ever heard of one falsing nor has the manfacturer who I asked this question. Even though I'm not interested in a false release, they said if it ever false tripped, they would repair and refill for free.

Sounds like a good idea. What system did you install and where did you buy it?

[SCVJeff]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jcthorne Sounds like a good idea. What system did you install and where did you buy it?

I bought all the equipment from firefight1.com (talk to Ralph). I have an SS-30 1lb Halon auto-release in the fridge compartment, another 1lb Halon by the stove, a handheld AFFF in the bedroom, a 3Liter AFFF auto-release over the engine, and I traded the factory powder bottle by the door with AFFF, and the powder moved to outside bay duty. Started getting expensive, but I treated it as a one-time insurance policy.

[mikron]

It's not the discharge, a sprinkler head will not false discharge without either hitting the link or heat. Smoke can get to 800 degrees or more and set off the sprinkler head without any flame. Halon only works if confined, you need 3 to 4 % saturation in the fire area for the halon to put out a fire. It is not a foam type system. Halon in an open area like under the engine hood or any other open area that can draw air to feed the fire will not work.

You need sealed containment of the gas to allow the proper saturation to put out a fire. when halon was used in computer rooms just as FM200 which replaced halon the room was self contained so no outside air could get in and dilute the gas. when old halon system are replaced there are companys that buy it to send over seas where they still us it.

I would check with a fire protection engineer in your area and ask him before you but your trust in halon in a non confined area. I have been desiging, installing, testing and repairing fire suppersion systems in Boston for 46 years.

[SCVJeff]

Since I can't seem to edit, Take #2

Firefight1

[SCVJeff]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikron It's not the discharge, a sprinkler head will not false discharge without either hitting the link or heat. Smoke can get to 800 degrees or more and set off the sprinkler head without any flame. Halon only works if confined, you need 3 to 4 % saturation in the fire area for the halon to put out a fire. It is not a foam type system. Halon in an open area like under the engine hood or any other open area that can draw air to feed the fire will not work. You need sealed containment of the gas to allow the proper saturation to put out a fire. when halon was used in computer rooms just as FM200 which replaced halon the room was self contained so no outside air could get in and dilute the gas. when old halon system are replaced there are companys that buy it to send over seas where they still us it. I would check with a fire protection engineer in your area and ask him before you but your trust in halon in a non confined area. I have been desiging, installing, testing and repairing fire suppersion systems in Boston for 46 years.

The whole point is to kill a start before it engulfs everything. As you said: 3-4% is all that's needed, and that's a hell of a lot of Halon to be dumping in that very small space in a very short time, vented or not. I pondered this as well but was convinced by several fire captian's I know, as well as the guys at FireFight before I was convinced about the fridge. On the engine I will absolutly agree as it will most likely be a fuel/ oil fire before it gets worse, and with the ambient heat and fuel still present in the are could re-ignite on it's own. AFFF I'm told will completely engulf the engine compartment when released, open bottom open or not, and being water based will cool things down, certainly minimizing the chance of re-ignition over Halon

BTW- Don't forget that the only agent accepted by the FAA is still Halon. Seems to put out an engine fire pretty nicely with 600MPH air blowing by.

[Ray,IN]

Water-based fire suppression materials will freeze, often rendering the extinguisher inoperable. Something to keep in mind for non-heated areas. Halon works by dis-placing oxygen making the affected area deadly for breathing creatures. Powdered materials will compact with time, requiring the operator to bang the extinguisher on something to dislodge and break up caked powder. Everything has a trade-off. Everyone must educate themselves, not depend upon a salesperson to protect the customers interests.
I know this is not an answer to your question, but fits into this area of discussion.

[Craig P.]

Don,

I have the same exact refer extinguisher as Jeff has. I installed it almost two years ago and I have never had a false discharge.

FireFight installs a tape heat strip near the head of their extinguishers. Dots on these heat strips darken when temperatures reach 100F, 125F, 150F, and 175F respectively. My strip is dark near the 100F mark, but it has never reached the 125F level.

There is another good iRV2 discussion going on, about where to exactly mount these babies. You can find it here.

Craig