Dampers on Clean Agent Releasing or FA Panel?

2/16/2021

We are designing a clean agent system for electrical rooms located within a high-rise building. We are proposing having dedicated clean agent releasing control panels for the electrical rooms, and a separate building Fire Alarm Control Panel.

Is it mandatory to connect fire/smoke dampers (and other shutdown devices) in the electrical room with the clean agent releasing panel, or can these be connected to the building fire alarm system?

Thanks in advance.

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7 Comments

Matt

2/16/2021 09:16:11 am

not sure about the code - but if the dampers play any role in the agent containment, you will want to make sure they close before the agent is discharged.

Pete

2/16/2021 10:09:28 am

I agree with both Matt and Doug. Depending on the age of the building FACP the functionality can be reduced from that of a modern panel, however, using solid state (solenoid) relays tied into fire alarm relays, there are a lot of options for setting up your action sequence.
The releasing panel could trigger programmed pre-action events, such as in the case of the Quell releasing panels starting the fire pump before releasing the solenoid on riser clapper.
Conversely, the detection pre-action triggers (smoke or heat) could theoretically be relayed through the sub-panel to send Trouble signals to the FACP which could in-turn initiate your shunt trips or whatever else you want to coincide with an alarm. I would consider these factors: 1) whether or not the shunt trip devices and dampers are already programmed to be performed by the FACP (if you're simply adding an initiating trigger to an existing program that is already wired to perform the desired operation, it would be far less work than starting from scratch), 2) whether you want the peripheral device events to be globally controlled (for ex. for a one stop bypass @ the FACP of notification appliances and shunt devices during inspections or during a fire emergency), and 3) if not code-mandated for the peripheral functions to precede the alarm event, are the shunt trip and baffles something you want to live with being inoperable for a clean agent system trouble until you get the system fixed? (smokes notoriously get dirty, go off in low temps, or just need to be changed out. If the system is shutting down the AHU in a freezing climate, are you willing to go without heat until an alarm tech comes out to change the smoke?

On the latter point, I would consider getting non-addressable, non-proprietary detection devices installed as pre-action devices for the proposed system. Then you could keep a spare stock, and a maintenance employee could pop the bad smoke out, install a new one out of the box, and reset the system.

Doug link

2/16/2021 09:29:00 am

If the clean agent panel is sending alarm, supervisory, and trouble signals to the building’s Fire Alarm Control Panel (FACP), both panels make up one fire detection and alarm system. If the main fire alarm system detects a fire, using staged evacuation, the main FACP will evacuate the building. If the clean agent panel goes into alarm and sets off an alarm in the main building’s FACP, the main FACP will evacuate the building.

Even though they are two different boxes on the wall, in two different locations, from the point of view occupant, and from the point of view of the firefighters entering the building, a fire is a fire.

OK, the firefighters deal with the fires differently if the fire is in the hallway, or if the fire is in the electrical room, but they’re there to put out a fire.

If your dampers and other shutdown devices are shut down by an alarm on the building’s FACP, an alarm on the clean agent panel, having activated the main FACP into alarm, will shut down the devices.

Darrell Wright

2/16/2021 01:21:47 pm

I just did an acceptance test on this exact situation. It was done exactly as Doug says. FM-200 system has its own panel that sends signals to the main FACP for the entire building. The main FACP controls all the other functions such as dampers, fire doors, evac, etc.

chad putney

2/16/2021 02:39:18 pm

As the clean agent system is designed to minimize down time and losses, you should minimize the potential points of failure in its execution.

The releasing panel should have its own output to the dampers. Otherwise you are relying on the main FACP to do the work.

Not to say that the main FACP cannot control the dampers in parallel however, if the connection to the main FACP is lost or the programming somehow is changed, etc, etc, the clean agent system won't work if the room isn't properly contained.

Muneer

2/17/2021 10:08:51 pm

As per NFPA 2001, 2018 edition,

4.3.3.9 All devices for shutting down supplementary equipment
shall be considered integral parts of the system and shall
function with the system operation.

As per my understanding, all shutdown devices shall be connected with Extinguishing control panel as per above clause of NFPA 2001.
Now, can we use this clause on Main Fire Alarm Panel of Building as Extinguishing control panel will be interfaced with it.

KANG

2/16/2021 04:45:41 pm

Connecting damper shutdown signal from clean agent panel to HVAC panel is not mandatory. Building fire alarm panel which is connected with fire detector can deliver confirmed fire signal to both HVAC control panel to shutdown damper and clean agent panel to release gas.

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