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Watermist fire fighting MV electrical safety

David Gorshkov

I am reviewing the fixed watermist fire fighting installations in a new fleet of hybrid ships we are building . The water mist based fixed fire fighting appliances (FFFA) we are using extends into the main propulsion areas as well as the power generating areas.

Water Mist heads are used instead of sprinklers these days as these are more effective, however I can find no definitive tests or regulations that state water mist is safe to use in Medium Voltage switchboard areas?  Appreciate that if I have a fire the main objective is to extinguish it but it is not unusual for FFFA to be set off accidentally in a technical space so I must then consider IP ratings of equipments in these spaces in order that equipment is not damaged during an accidental discharge and that engineers investigating the incident are not at risk of electrocution from the MV systems which may still be live or charged!

Does anyone have any reference information regarding any testing done on Watermist systems to validate their safety levels with LV, MV and indeed HV systems?

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    I have only installed water mist system electrical supplies in domestic properties, the actual water mist equipment being installed by a fire alarm company with a release head under the base of the kitchen tap and another on the wall of the room the stairs come down into.

    The guys who installed the actual equipment assured me that it doesn’t drench everything and would not get into electrical fittings and ruin everything in the rooms, it would all merely require a wipe down afterwards.

    But I have never seen one go off or the aftermath, mind you I was careful about where I ran the cables too for the heat alarms that activate the system.

    The domestic systems can operate from a tank of water about the size of a storage heater, so they don’t have an unlimited water supply, the systems connected to the water main only run for a limited time, it’s not like a  car wash.

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    I have only installed water mist system electrical supplies in domestic properties, the actual water mist equipment being installed by a fire alarm company with a release head under the base of the kitchen tap and another on the wall of the room the stairs come down into.

    The guys who installed the actual equipment assured me that it doesn’t drench everything and would not get into electrical fittings and ruin everything in the rooms, it would all merely require a wipe down afterwards.

    But I have never seen one go off or the aftermath, mind you I was careful about where I ran the cables too for the heat alarms that activate the system.

    The domestic systems can operate from a tank of water about the size of a storage heater, so they don’t have an unlimited water supply, the systems connected to the water main only run for a limited time, it’s not like a  car wash.

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