HALON as a protection means in COMPUTER ROOM

[Randy Born]

We are presently downsizing our computer room from three bays to one bay.
The old room has a HALON fire protection system which seems the proper
thing to do. The plant engineering staff here is advising that we put a
spinkler system in in lieu of HALON. The say that this is the way that new
computer rooms are protected and as well it is cheaper.

I feel that a spinkler system would do considerably more damage to the SUN
computers.  This is not a terminal room and as such few people will be in
the room (operator and technical maintenance). I have heard that the
concern for HALON stems from the fact that it should be not used in rooms
where there may be people who may not be aware a what HALON is and how to
react to the early warning alarm(pending trouble) or to the KLAXON alarm
prior to the HALON dump.

I am asking our hardware support people( SUN MAINTENANCE ) if there is any
concerns about this with regards to the maintenance contract. 

If anybody can shed some light on this topic or can point me to articles
that discuss this PLEASE EMAIL to:
					randy at ai.dee.nrc.ca