Engine bay and diesel tank fire suppressant

[cagey]

what is the up to date thinking on fire control, 2 x 150 litre diesel tanks and separate engine bay, guidance please on how to be up to date on how to pre vent, suppress and alarm the hotspots.
Thanks
Keith

 

[jwfrary]

Depending on your budget.

Traditional Smoke heat fire alarm possibly one of the linked type or make one using commercially availible heads. NMEA 2000 engine room temp sender, you can senmt alarms on most modern MFD, look at yacht devices for that.

Possiblly Flir engine room camara to monitor temps, hot spots etc.

Fire insulation on bulkheads to contain. It and prevent spreading. Iso fuel and water intake hose, which is fire retardant.

Fight with stat x or more conventionally novec 1230 (sea fire) and fit engine room air dampers, which involves effectively sealing the engine room off entirely and having a dedicated air entry which can be sealed to starve the fire. Common on workboats but incredibly rare on yachts I find.

 

[geem]

Depending on your budget.

Traditional Smoke heat fire alarm possibly one of the linked type or make one using commercially availible heads. NMEA 2000 engine room temp sender, you can senmt alarms on most modern MFD, look at yacht devices for that.

Possiblly Flir engine room camara to monitor temps, hot spots etc.

Fire insulation on bulkheads to contain. It and prevent spreading. Iso fuel and water intake hose, which is fire retardant.

Fight with stat x or more conventionally novec 1230 (sea fire) and fit engine room air dampers, which involves effectively sealing the engine room off entirely and having a dedicated air entry which can be sealed to starve the fire. Common on workboats but incredibly rare on yachts I find.

It doesn't sound like he owns a ship.

How about an automatic dry powder extinguisher instead ?

 

[[70521]]

Diesel is difficult to set fire to.

Most engine fires will be electrical, combustible solid materials and oil.

Water mist is the way to go

 

[rotrax]

We have just purchased, from Amazon, 4 X Firexo 2 Litre extinguishers. Mounting brackets are no good for boat use but the brackets on the boat were easily modified. I have devised suitable fixings for the extra two.

One is mounted alongside the engine bay, adjacent to the 'firing hole', another close to the Galley. One will be fixed in the pilothouse the other in the master cabin.

 

[dankilb]

Diesel is difficult to set fire to.

Most engine fires will be electrical, combustible solid materials and oil.

Water mist is the way to go

Just to clarify though, we have recently established that they don't make auto water mist extinguishers (although I suspect they're coming soon). We need to know what the OP has in mind: The right extinguishers to poke into the engine bay in event of fire? Or something that will automatically activate and suppress?

And if autos were available, I'm still not completely convinced I'd risk one misting our new Beta 50 and the Victron Multi II in the adjacent locker space (with a hole connecting for plumbing, cables, etc.). Of course, if it were clearly on fire, I'd mist anything/everything going!

 

[geem]

Just to clarify though, we have recently established that they don't make auto water mist extinguishers (although I suspect they're coming soon). We need to know what the OP has in mind: The right extinguishers to poke into the engine bay in event of fire? Or something that will automatically activate and suppress?

And if autos were available, I'm still not completely convinced I'd risk one misting our new Beta 50 and the Victron Multi II in the adjacent locker space (with a hole connecting for plumbing, cables, etc.). Of course, if it were clearly on fire, I'd mist anything/everything going!

Having worked on designs for large data centres where high pressure water mist is the standard solution for data halls and generator rooms, I would be concerned about the installation in small boats. The best commercial systems operate at 200 bar. The theory is that you never see more than a couple of heads activate in a fire but they still have about 6000 litres of water in a tank and high pressure pumps to ensure they maintain the 200 bar needed to issue a fine mist of water. How will this be achieved in a small boat reliably? If it's not super fine atomised water mist then it's just spraying water on an electrical fire.

 

[jwfrary]

Having worked on designs for large data centres where high pressure water mist is the standard solution for data halls and generator rooms, I would be concerned about the installation in small boats. The best commercial systems operate at 200 bar. The theory is that you never see more than a couple of heads activate in a fire but they still have about 6000 litres of water in a tank and high pressure pumps to ensure they maintain the 200 bar needed to issue a fine mist of water. How will this be achieved in a small boat reliably? If it's not super fine atomised water mist then it's just spraying water on an electrical fire.

We had one aboard a vessel at work. It was charged at 310 bar, which is scary pressure!

We did some testing when it was removed and actually it was pretty good at misting and for quite a while, however a similar vessel had a dive bottle blow on the back deck, making its way though a few people prior to stoving into the back of the wheelhouse so we have moved to novec 1230 in an effort to reduce risk a bit as the cylinder charge is far far lower and we also don't have the clean up associated with dry powder.

They are availible in pretty small bottles suitable for the average yacht.

Initially putting down flames is one thing keeping them out requires cooling by water and keeping the air shut out. Ship or boat the principle is the same.

 

[geem]

We had one aboard a vessel at work. It was charged at 310 bar, which is scary pressure!

We did some testing when it was removed and actually it was pretty good at misting and for quite a while, however a similar vessel had a dive bottle blow on the back deck, making its way though a few people prior to stoving into the back of the wheelhouse so we have moved to novec 1230 in an effort to reduce risk a bit as the cylinder charge is far far lower and we also don't have the clean up associated with dry powder.

They are availible in pretty small bottles suitable for the average yacht.

Initially putting down flames is one thing keeping them out requires cooling by water and keeping the air shut out. Ship or boat the principle is the same.

Agreed, principal is the same but on a ship you have space to ensure good distribution of high pressure water mist, a large supply tank, high pressure pumps and a service/ maintenance schedule. A small boat has a fire extinguisher sized reservoir probably poorly located. Very limited supply of water. Same principles but completely different.