Room Integrity Testing in London
Room Integrity Testing in London
There are literally tens of thousands of protected enclosures
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
of 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. 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. 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.
Unfortunately, in the relevant ISO standard BS EN15004if you don’t have valid room integrity certification you may negate your buildings insurance in the event of a fire. In all instances the integrity certification should always be attached to the front of the protected enclosure/s to show it has valid certification and to clearly show the dates of the next test. The certification also has other useful information that should be adhered to at all times. If you don’t have integrity test certification fixed to the front of the enclosure, then the chances are that your enclosure may not have valid certification.
Within the In many cases the stakeholder may not be aware that any modifications have been undertaken to the room’s envelope as this may further reduce the integrity of the enclosure envelope. That is why it’s always best to plan any works within protected enclosures so that everyone’s aware of the importance of maintaining the integrity of the enclosure envelope and the requirement for a fresh integrity test after any modifications have taken place.
Smoke Testing to Find Air Leakage Paths
APT’s highly trained and experienced Enclosure Testing Engineers will be able to locate the problem areas and identify where air is leaking out of the building by walking around the test enclosure with a localised smoke puffer – as shown in the image below) checking the most common problem areas first.
By combining our door fan blower equipment and a small smoke puffer we can quickly locate any penetrations in in the enclosure envelope as the smoke is more visible. Smoke leaking from the enclosure can be easily seen and photographed to provide a record of any external leakage paths. Pressurised smoke tests are ideal for identifying both generic and torturous areas of air leakage. Crucial remedial sealing work should then be undertaken to reduce the leakage from the enclosure. The sealing works may include:
• Sealing all holes, cracks or penetrations
• Pipe chases and cable trays to be sealed
• Walls to be caulked around the inside perimeter
• Sealing of porous block walls
• Addition of drop seals, weather stripping around jambs
• Sealing of windows/glazed sections to the area
One of the advantages of the sealing works being conducted whilst a test fan kit is in place, is that it can be seen if the works being conducted are effective via ongoing smoke testing and sealing works. Once the appropriate remedial work has been undertaken the enclosure should be retested to confirm the acceptable retention time as been achieved – usually 10 minutes.
Air Pressure Testing provides the necessary Room Integrity Testing & air tightness 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.
As part of our service, we can also arrange an annual test plan and remind you when the enclosure test/s are required to make sure your building’s insurance is not at risk. If you require room integrity testing in London, please call: 07775 623464 or visit the APT Sound Testing website today.