Your gaseous agent will only be effective if the enclosure containing your sensitive equipment can hold the agent for the amount of time and concentration as designed. These areas are normally mission critical high value areas containing sensitive equipment and data. Penetrations in the enclosure can create leakage areas for the gaseous agent to escape, reducing the concentration of the agent in the enclosure possibly making the agent ineffective. This test can also specify the need for mechanical venting in the case of overpressure from the release of the agent causing structural damage to the enclosure.
The Requirement:
NFPA 2001 & NFPA 12A require any new gaseous fire suppression system shall undergo a room integrity test before commissioning of the new total flooding gaseous system. This test should also be done every 5 years or anytime there is a remodel or new penetrations of the enclosure. This test is used to predict the hold time of the gaseous agent for the required amount of time per NFPA requirements. NFPA 2001 requires that a minimum concentration of 85% of the adjusted minimum design concentration be held at the highest level of combustibles for a minimum of 10 min. The door fan test assures the room can hold the gaseous agent for this period of time.
Enclosure integrity test/door fan test:
The room integrity/door fan test procedure is a way of measuring and verifying the enclosures leakage rate using state of the art equipment to pressurize the enclosure to simulate the pressures exerted during an agent discharge, the enclosure is then depressurized by reversing the airflow. Throughout this process, airflow and pressure readings are monitored and calculated using specialized computer software giving the equivalent leakage area (ELA).
Contact us to schedule a highly certified and experienced technician to conduct the enclosure integrity/door fan test.
