psneeld
Guru
for those interested....general info...not specific to your boat.
USCG: Fixed Fire Extinguishing Systems for T-Boats
USCG: Fixed Fire Extinguishing Systems for T-Boats
The old system , where a cable is pulled , the exhaust blower is de-powered and the ER vents are closed ,
then massive CO2 is released seems reliable.
While I agree systems like that are great. A complete system like you describe is not that easy to put together nor cheap to assemble and install. And as Scott mentioned, you better be able to override them in a hurry if need be.
Also since they are not required on a private vessel, other than one built to class, I doubt you would save much on your insurance premium. But it would be comforting to have on board.
And of course you can't buy a true Halon system anymore. But you probably know that.
for those interested....general info...not specific to your boat.
USCG: Fixed Fire Extinguishing Systems for T-Boats
$12 discount? YAHOO!
Smoke detectors are great for alarms alerting you of a potential fire but you want the system to dump on an actual fire. For an auto discharge system, use thermal detectors. Where I used to work, we had a computer room protected by smoke detector activated Halon 1301 system. A small instrument power supply overheated one night and dumped $140K worth of Halon based on a little smoke. A 50 cent fuse down powered the power supply before getting anywhere near a fire.
This is what I've got courtesy of previous commercial survey requirements.
All manual, simple to operate, and totally over the top.
Unless my ER is on fire of course.
To my thinking there is no point in having an automatic discharge Halon type system without an automatic shutdown. If the engine keeps running during the discharge, it will just pass the agent out through the exhaust and you'll never get enough of a concentration to put out the fire.
This wasn't an issue with CO2 systems as the CO2 would shut the engine down. Of course the draw back was that it would kill you if you happened to be in the engine room when it went off.
The nice thing about the current extinguishing agents is that they will put out fires at lower concentrations than it takes to kill you. That's also why you don't oversize the system just to be sure you have enough.
"The old system , where a cable is pulled , the exhaust blower is de-powered and the ER vents are closed ,then massive CO2 is released seems reliable."
I haven't been around trawlers for very long, but I don't recall seeing engine room vent covers installed on any that I looked at before buying. I installed them myself on my previous boat. Anybody have photos of theirs or a place to purchase or designs to build?
Kevin
Smoke detectors in the engine room will not fare well. They are not suitable for the outdoorsy environment and will fail in a short time. Consider flame detectors or more heat detectors at a lower temperature.
O.B.
Kevin
Yes, I am a fire protection engineer. I have designed and specified fire protection for everything from nuclear power plants to offshore platforms.
The xintrex system looks like the one I would install on my boat. Smoke detectors in sleeping areas and electrical areas. Heat detectors in machinery areas. Almost any switching device or a device with a switch can be added to the detection circuit. Say a flame detector or a gas detector with ancillary contacts.
Good Luck, if you have anymore questions just ask.
O.B
Kevin
When the initiating circuit is shorted you get alarm. This is often considered the failure mode. When the circuit is opened and the control can no longer see the EOL (end of line) device you get a fault alarm. In a fault you can still get a fire alarm if the detecting device is on the control side of the fault. So you see the circuit is being monitored all the time and which way it failes becomes sort of mute. You will get some sort of notification of failure no matter how the system fails.