Data centers play a vital role in today’s modern technology and communications infrastructure and are expected to grow significantly in number and importance as more users shift to cloud-based applications and services. 

According to Hilti’s internal research, the total investment value for data center projects in the period 2024 to 2028 will exceed 232.3 bn$, with the biggest proportion of investment in Asian and European countries.

FIG: Datacenter Total investment value

This makes the data centers a very interesting segment within the construction industry, not just for the boom in new projects but also for the investment in maintenance and retrofitting.  

According to a white paper on NFPA 75 and fire protection in data centers, the average total cost of a downtime incident is nearly $700,000 (USD). This highlights the critical importance of protecting data centers from downtime and service outages for both businesses and consumers.

Why fire is a threat to data centers?

Fire accidents in data centers are relatively rare, but when they occur, they have significant impact. According to the Uptime Institute, the average number of fires in data centers is 0.5 per year since 1994. These numbers may seem very low, but between 2020 and 2023 there were 14 high-profile data center outages caused by fires or by fire suppression systems. These incidents can lead to extended downtime, potential data loss, and significant financial costs.

Fire can be originated by electrical failures, overheating of batteries, inadequate maintenance of cooling systems, external factors, and human errors.

How to minimize fires in data centers

FIG 2: DATA CENTER COMPARTMENTation (HCH ID: 2646079)

Globally, NFPA 75 and NFPA 76 from the National Fire Protection Association outline the fire protection requirements for data centers and telecommunications facilities. These standards serve as the reference standards for data centers.

Compartmentation and passive fire protection solutions are critical to minimize the impacts of fire accidents in any industrial building, including data centers. Effective fire protection solutions prevent the spread of flames and hot gases (integrity) as well as heat transfer (insulation) from the fire side to the non-fire side.

In addition to their integrity and insulation characteristics, effective passive fire protection solutions eliminate airflow between compartments to preserve energy efficiency. Energy efficiency is critical in data centers because of the vast amount of energy consumption they require and the heat they produce. Minimizing the amount of undesired airflow is essential to managing energy consumption efficiently. Passive fire protection solutions act as barriers in limiting the non-desired air flow.

Increasing needs for more data capacity also increase the need for higher energy efficiency and more efficient cooling systems. These cooling systems also need to have the right firestopping systems applied to ensure they continue operating in case of an incident

It is crucial to minimize fire accidents in new construction projects by considering fire protection measures in early planning.

Innovation in data centers

The use of innovative construction materials like sandwich panels is increasingly gaining relevance in data centers construction compared to more traditional materials like concrete. This influences the selection of passive firestopping solutions that need to achieve the corresponding approvals for their use with these construction materials.

Sustainability in data centers

Additionally, ISO 14644-1 states that data centers should be classified and operated as clean room class 8 environments. This implies minimizing particulate contamination which otherwise can increase a data center’s power demand by 2% or more (based on Goldman Sachs). While achieving a 100% particle-free environment is not feasible, there are innovative passive fire protection fiber-free solutions like Hilti CFS BL that can substantially help, for instance, by replacing the use of traditional solutions like coated boards with innovative fiber-free solutions. This way, data centers can maintain cleaner environments, reduce energy waste, and prevent unplanned downtime, ensuring the safety and efficiency of their operations.

Green Building Product Certificates support projects with sustainability goals or aiming for Green Building Certification (such as LEED 4.1 or BREEAM). The Product Carbon Footprint can be found in the Environmental Product Declaration and/or Life Cycle Assessments. Material Health Certificates provide a health assessment of the formulation. VOC test certificates confirm that emissions and content fulfil Green Building Standards.

Effective solutions to promote fire safety in data centers

It has been established that passive fire protection solutions for data centers need to be effective fire and temperature barriers. It has also been established that other attributes like fiber-free materials and airflow tightness are key for the safe operations of data centers.
Also, a good maintenance program in data centers may require the addition and removal of data and electrical cables and, therefore, the use of firestopping solutions that allow re-installation.

Digital design services like Building Information Modelling (BIM) provide transparency for designers and engineers on trade penetration details and fire rating of the walls and slabs. It is important that the necessary level of detail is added to the digital elements present in these BIM models. With the right level of detail in BIM model and early coordination of trades, it is possible to achieve optimization of fire stop design and product installation efficiency on the job site.

In the realm of hardware solutions, pre-formed solutions like the Hilti CFS-BL, CFS-MSL and CP 653 firestop speed sleeve excel in meeting these needs.

The advantages of pre-formed solutions over traditional solutions are evident. Pre-formed solutions are easier to design, re-penetrable, reliable and can be installed faster when compared to traditional solutions as no or less backfilling material is required. They often have superior airflow performance as they are pre-cured to have right thickness. This makes them especially useful in places like data centers where changes happen often.

If you would like to find out more about Hilti data center solutions, you can check here.