Hugh, have the fire official prove/define the state law or fire code
establishing that NC does not allow clean agent fire suppression
systems.

Best regards, Steve
Steven D. Whitaker, CRM
Records Systems Manager; City of Reno

>>> [log in to unmask] 08/30/05 11:42PM >>>
Could anyone assist me on a project in North Carolina?  I have a fire
official that
is stating that North Carolina does not allow Data Centers and Server
Vaults to be
protected by a clean agent fire suppression systems.  He is demanding
water
sprinklers be located directly over the computer equipment, blade
servers, RAID
units, etc.

But he willing to review his decision if I can show him another City
in
North Carolina
that has allowed a data center to operate this way.

NFPA 232 allows for clean agent suppression in vaults, (which this
would be) and
NFPA 75 specifically recommends that clean agent gaseous agents be
considered
for computer room environments.  There are hundreds and hundreds of
data centers
that operate this way across the country but he is forbidding it in
Raleigh Durham.

He also requires the example to be in  a large city such as Charlotte,
Winston Salem,
or Greensboro or even in especially Raleigh Durham. ( He is new.)

If you have a Data Center in your company, could you stroll  down the
hall and see if
they are using a gaseous agent instead of water. Your IT Manager could
tell you
immediately or just look to see if there are sprinkler heads in the
ceiling.

Our design includes a "four hour rated fireproof vault" with water
sprinklers above and
spraying over the top of the vault to protect the building and then
gas
agent inside the
Server Vault.  This is recognized as equivalent or alternate method
design and is
allowable under the code in most jurisdictions but he is forbidding it
in Raleigh Durham.

I find it hard to believe that in the Research Triangle, that every
data center sits under a
water sprinkler system.  I know of only two other jurisdictions in the
country that take this
stringent exception to the code as written.

The client is planning to move two data centers out of North Carolina
if they cannot get
this design approved since this is the only jurisdiction they have run
into that has this view
of Data Center environments.

If you are a North Carolina citizen, you can keep a fairly large
company in state by helping
me prove that other entities in North Carolina have used fire
suppression by clean agent
gaseous suppression within the state.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Cordially,

Hugh

Hugh Smith
FIRELOCK Fireproof Modular Vaults
[log in to unmask]
(610)  756-4440    Fax (610)  756-4134
www.FIRELOCK.COM

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