Most facilities have some number of critical and sensitive pieces of equipment. Server rooms, battery storage rooms, laboratories, stages, or other complex areas require a thoughtful approach to fire protection. The use of aspirating smoke detection can be a lifesaver under certain conditions. A prime example is magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which is typically found in hospitals and other health care occupancies. MRI uses strong magnets to image the human body. The rooms housing the scanners are usually magnetically shielded, and the presence of magnetic materials is prohibited.
This article is intended to explain aspirating smoke detection as a viable alternative to typical spot smoke detectors that have magnetic components and cannot be used and provide some initial tips on how to represent it in an engineering design to be issued for solicitation of bids. This approach is focused on MRI rooms as an example but is broadly applicable wherever aspirating smoke detection is desirable.