Water mist fire suppression systems

Ellen Carrlee <ellen.carrlee [at] alaska__gov> writes

>The Alaska State Museum is considering alternatives to our Halon
>fire suppression system in collections storage.  I am eager to hear
>from institutions who have recently considered or installed a mist
>fire suppression system.  The space in question has some abandoned
>wet pipes that we are looking into re-using for a wet pipe system,
>but they have been unused for many years and may no longer be
>functional. Unfortunately, the area above-ceiling where the pipes
>are located contains asbestos, and pipe replacement would be
>difficult.  We might be able to install pipes below the ceiling
>instead.  Juneau, Alaska (population roughly 30,000) is not on the
>road system and we're concerned about installing something that
>isn't yet well established in the museum world.

You will want to carefully consider re-using your wet pipe system.
If the system has been sitting dry for any length of time the inside
of the pipes are likely to have a considerable amount of rust scale.
Pieces of this scale could very well clog one or more of the
sprinklers in the event of operation.  You should have them checked
out by an experienced and qualified fire suppression system
installer.  If they were left with water in them, this should not be
a problem, but I'd still have the pipes checked and remove, inspect
and re-install all the heads.

If you already have a Halon system, presumably the room is not very
large. Though I am not a fan of gas systems in storage areas because
I've seen them fail to put out test fires, you might consider simply
replacing your Halon system with an alternate gas.

Tom Dixon
Melbourne Australia


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 22:36
                 Distributed: Monday, December 15, 2008
                       Message Id: cdl-22-36-005
                                  ***