The Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire, Scotland has AA Five Red Stars and is home to three championship golf courses, world-class leisure facilities and was the host venue for the G8 Summit in 2005.
Given high profile visitors, 500 staff and 266 bedrooms, safety at Gleneagles is of primary importance. With fire detection and alarm systems already in place throughout the hotel from ADT, the installer was tasked with protecting the ‘engine room’ of the building – its switch room. Safeguarding this room in the event of a fire is crucial to ensure the smooth running of the hotel, as it houses the central controls for lighting, heating and ventilation throughout the hotel and its leisure facilities. Any electrical malfunction of these services through fire damage or as a result of a traditional water based extinguishant could have serious consequences and would be extremely detrimental to the hotel’s premier reputation.
For the installer, the challenge was to find an early detection system that isolated the fire and an extinguishant that was safe, environmentally sound, and would not damage any electrical equipment as it tackled the fire. The solution, the installer reports, was Sapphire, a system featuring 3M Novec 1230 fire protection fluid, a clean agent with no electrical conductivity. This makes it an attractive fire fighting solution for high value assets and staff, it is claimed. Sapphire extinguishes fires, but does not short out equipment and leaves no residue, the installer adds.
What they say
Doug Flavell, Extinguishing Product Manager for ADT, explains: "Sapphire is a revolutionary product that is an ideal solution for the Gleneagles Hotel. The system combines all the benefits of a chemical agent and inert gas. It is compact for easy storage, leaves no residue and is fast acting – allowing discharge in ten seconds. The system contains a number of early warning indicators and operates on a coincidence detection principle, meaning that it will only discharge 3M Novec 1230 fluid into the protected area when two dedicated zones of fire sensors go into alarm, helping to minimise false discharges."
