DerBlitzkrieger

kind of. it really depends on what kind of halon youre talking about. there is more than one kind, and they have different uses, and will kill you in different ways.

Halon 1301, which is used for the total flooding systems, is normally seen in concentrations of about 7%. at that concentration, you wont notice any ill effects for about 15 minutes. other types of halon, like halon 1202 are toxic as hell, and will kill you nearly instantly. others, like halon 104 (you will never see this stuff) is not only toxic, but it can cause cancer.

now, keep in mind that the US government used halon 1301 in missle silos, where the men werent allowed to leave, and got no fresh air for a week. of course, once the halon dissipated, the concentration was almost nothing.

for the most part, halon is completely safe, and you would have plenty of time to get out of a room or compartment. also, it is required by code to have an abort switch near the exits in a room or area protected with a 1301 system. this switch is the dead-man type, so once you let up off it, the system will activate. but this keeps false alarms from wasting the VERY expensive halon.

now, the reason halon is so expensive, is because its manufacture has been banned by the montreal protocol. in case you didnt know, the protocol was put in place to halt the production of CFCs, so we dont keep on destroying the ozone layer. of course, as luck would have it, all Halon agents are CFCs! so who cares if the fucking world burns down, as long as we dont lose that ozone layer, am i right?

anyway, halon isnt illegal to use, buy or sell, just make. so there are literally Halon banks that will buy your unused supply of halon gas when you demo a halon system, and they can then sell it to others who prefer to keep using it. eventually, we will run out, but not for a couple of decades.

so now there are products called halon alternatices on the market. the most used of these is called FM-200, and which i have the most experience with. DuPont just recently came out with two other alternative gasses called FE-227 and FE-25, so now that FM-200 has some competition, we should see prices on these systems drop, which is really good news.

when i said this stuff is expensive, im not kidding. i just saw an estimate a sales guy did, and the contract was about $75,000 to protect a 3000 cubic foot data center, with no raised floors! the agent cost nearly HALF the contract price!

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300,000 Kilometers per second: It's not just a good idea. Its the law.