Room Integrity Testing in London
There are literally tens of thousands of protected enclosures – such as server rooms and data centres) throughout London and the South East. With many of the banking and commercial institutions based in the capital the requirement to provide a safe environment for critical equipment is greater than ever.
It is now a requirement of the BFPSA that all protected enclosures such as server rooms and/or data centres have valid enclosure certification – it is also a requirement of all major commercial institutions to comply with ISO standard BS EN15004.
The benefits of ensuring room integrity are widely recognised by insurers and regulatory authorities, who frequently require room integrity testing in London to prevent critical system failure on valuable assets such as server rooms and data centres. It is also worth noting that you may negate your buildings insurance if you don’t have the valid certification.
Enclosures protected by gaseous fire suppression system -such as server rooms should be tested for air-tightness upon commissioning of the system and annually thereafter; however you are also required to undertake testing if you make any changes to the room envelope such as the introduction of new data trays and/or pipework. etc. This is critical to ensure that the system will work effectively when activated; too much air-leakage will result in the concentration of the fire suppressant agent falling too quickly resulting in rapid fire spread as shown in the image below.
For most extinguishing system types, a retention time of ten minutes is the minimum period the suppressant agents is required to be retained for within the enclosure. NFPA 2001, Standard on Clean Agent Fire Extinguishing Systems, requires that a minimum concentration of 85% of the adjusted minimum design concentration be held at the highest level of combustibles for a minimum period of 10 minutes. This is usually long enough to prevent re-ignition for most deep-seated fires and should provide adequate time for the emergency services to attend and prevent the fire taking hold.
An Integrity test predicts how long fire suppressant agents take to descend to a given level in the room without having to discharge the actual suppression system. The room is sealed, and then the air pressure is tested with door fan and sensor equipment. The fan unit is temporarily located within the test doorway to pressurize and depressurize the enclosure. A series of pressure and air flow measurements are taken from which leakage characteristics of the enclosures are established. The predicted retention time is calculated from the leakage characteristics and the enclosure and extinguishing system data.
Air Pressure Testing provides the necessary Room Integrity Testing in London to the required NFPA 2001 or ISO 14520 methodologies. We have undertaken hundreds of enclosure integrity tests around the UK and Europe. If you require room integrity testing in London, please call Darren on: 07775623464 or email us at: info@aptsoundtesting.co.uk