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We are a company based in the extremely cold regions of the north, where the temperature in the server rooms often fails to meet the requirements for preventing freezing. When heating solutions are not available temporarily, we usually turn off the axial flow fans in the server rooms to reduce ventilation and thus control the temperature there, and this method has proven effective time and again. This year the temperatures have been too low; once winter set in, the temperature in the machine rooms dropped below zero. Based on past experience with preventing freezing and this year’s anti-freezing measures, we turned off all the heating systems in the compressor rooms (including those for hydrogen compressors). When I went to handle the procedures for shutting down these safety devices, a colleague from our Safety and Environment department reminded me that axial flow fans are essential safety equipment necessary for ensuring proper mechanical ventilation in the machine rooms. It is not acceptable to use their shutdown as a means of preventing freezing in winter; even if steam is used to raise the temperature in the rooms, these fans must not be turned off. This management philosophy really touched me; indeed, over the years we have done many things at the expense of safety. So the question arises: I checked the provisions of the SH3004-2011 Standard for Design of Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning in the petrochemical industry, and there is no rule stating that such ventilation systems must not be shut down. Does anyone have relevant guidelines that can explain why this cannot be disabled? Help needed~
Ventilation is still essential; we can stop the fans at the top at most, while those at the bottom are rarely stopped
How does it stop at the top? The tops are all spherical storms that require no external force.
The fans cannot be turned off completely; in my previous workplace, there were 6 axial flow fans in the compressor room – two of them were always running, while four started automatically in response to a gas leak alarm. Why stop heating? The house should be kept warm at around 5°C; otherwise, it will affect the operation of the lubrication system for the compressor.
The heating system is still running; it’s fully operational. The temperature in the machine room is only 3 degrees even when all the axial flow fans have been turned off. This indeed poses a significant challenge to preventing equipment from freezing. The key question is whether there are relevant regulations to support the leadership’s views – are there any specific guidelines regarding the activation and deactivation of such special security technology equipment? ! ! Please, someone expert can help solve this! !