Fire, life safety in data centers

The Consulting-Specifying Engineer 2016 Fire & Life Safety Study indicated that 44% of engineers specify, design, or make product selections for data centers—and the majority of these engineers are responsible for determining requirements/writing specifications for these projects. Below are five fire and life safety findings as they relate to data center projects:

1. Systems specified: The top three fire and life safety systems being specified into data centers are fire, smoke, heat, and linear detection systems (88%); smoke detection, control systems, dampers, etc. (83%); and network and intelligent fire alarm control panels (68%).
2. Specified systems value: The average firm earns $2.64 million annually from fire and life safety systems specified into new and existing data centers, with 30% bringing in more than $3 million each year from these projects.
3. Specifications: Engineers are most frequently issuing performance fire and life safety systems specifications (83%) for data centers, followed by prescriptive specifications (66%).
4. Challenges: When working on fire and life safety systems for data centers, engineers are having the most difficulty with code authorities’ subjective interpretation of regulations (75%), insufficient funding for quality design (66%), and designing for interoperability and integration of systems (64%).
5. Comparing products: Overall product quality is most important (73%) when selecting a fire and life safety systems for a data center; engineers also look at service support offerings (52%) and manufacturers’ reputations (50%).

View additional research from Consulting-Specifying Engineer: www.csemag.com/research

Do you have experience and expertise with the topics mentioned in this content? You should consider contributing to our WTWH Media editorial team and getting the recognition you and your company deserve. Click here to start this process.