Hello.

Reading about Water Mist Extinguishers and getting a bit overloaded in conflicting forum conversations.

In an office with 1- 6 litre foam and 1- 2kg co2 would 1 water mist be a suitable replacement?

Many thanks

Hi, as long as it is a water mist extinguisher with de-ionised water it can replace both the foam and the CO2 and would actually be more appropriate in an office. Please remember: You still have to have certain minimum numbers per floor in accordance with the British Standards.

Benefits:

- It is a very easy to use extinguisher and staff only require training for one type of extinguisher which reduces the risk of confusion

- Water mist extinguishers (with de-ionised water) do not conduct any electricity and are safe even on live electrical equipment (up to 1000V)

- De-ionised water does not leave any residue (foam, on the other hand, is hard to clean up and lightly carcinogenic)

- Water mist actually clears the air of smoke and builds up a heat buffer in front of the user

- The environmental impact is reduced, as de-ionised water is, well, just purest water. There are no chemicals in de-ionised water mist extinguishers

I hope this helps

 

Harry

 

Many thanks. I guess the company we use to maintain our extinguishers could clarify minimum numbers per floor. Just planning ahead when new extinguishers are required.

Thanks again.

Hi, if you need quantity info you could either message me your plans for our engineers to have a look at or you could post the siteplan in the forum for us to answer the question in the open.

Harry

 

Rough rule of thumb is one 13A rated extinguisher per 200 sq.m. (each extinguisher has a fire rating written on the front).

British Standards (Guidance not law) cite a minimum of 2 A-rated extinguishers regardless of floor size, but that's overkill for the trades benefit and any competent risk assessor would be happy with just one if it's a particularly small office.

As most environments have electrical equipment it's common practice to pair each fire point of water or foam with a CO2

Water Mist replaces the 2 separate extinguishers but not all extinguisher suppliers will stock these as they prefer the income from selling and maintaining (& replacing again every few years) twice as many extinguishers so you are best suited to order via Safelincs (don't forget to add Commissioning).

Many thanks. I guess the company we use to maintain our extinguishers could clarify minimum numbers per floor. Just planning ahead when new extinguishers are required.

Thanks again.

 

Many thanks Harry and Anthony.

I will speak to the powers that be.