Can Novec 1230 Be Considered Harmful?

Fire safety is a topic that is sometimes looked past when examining commercial buildings and domestic properties, but it is something that should not be taken lightly - as the health and safety of your staff, family and friends should always be the top priority.

There are many fire suppression systems that can put out flames and smoke effectively - yet, most extinguishers nowadays use different types of chemical agents or cooling systems to achieve this.

However, today we’re going to discuss whether Novec 1230 can be considered harmful for humans when evacuating a building (or being in the building for a sustained period of time). Carry on reading to learn more!

What is Novec 1230?

In regards to what is Novec 1230, this is a clean agent fluid that automatic fire suppression systems use in the event of a fire to suppress and put out the flames. The automatic system will detect the fire, sound a fire alarm and then begin the fire suppression procedure. 

The 3M Novec 1230 fluid is exceptional at protecting not only people’s lives but harming your expensive electrical equipment, gas-powered equipment and machinery too. Without this clean agent within your fire suppression system, it would not work effectively against the heat element of the fire triangle. 

Novec 1230 fire suppression fluid belongs to the halocarbons family, which also partners with HFCs (hydrofluorocarbon) and fluoro ketones. Due to this being a clean agent fire suppression system, the global warming potential (GWP) is much smaller than a lot of other fire extinguishing agents on the market.

What Does Novec 1230 Do?

Novec 1230 essentially takes away the heat from the oncoming fire and extinguishes any flames that are occurring in the proximity. Without this rapid decline of flames and smoke, this would cause many injuries and damage to humans and the expensive equipment you have stored. 

Other agents work by reducing the oxygen level in the fire (which is also highly effective) but this clean agent focuses solely on the cooling aspect of the fire triangle. So that you can understand this clean agent in a better light, we believe that exploring the advantages and disadvantages will help divide the true potential of what Novec 1230 can do:

Advantages of Novec 1230

When you look closer into the details of Novec 1230, gauging what its strengths are for your personal fire safety is essential. Some scenarios, properties and equipment suit different fire suppression methods. Let’s explore the advantages of Novec 1230 below:

• This fluid is eco-friendly and safe for humans to be in the vicinity of without worrying about suffocation.
• Novec 1230 has the flexibility of being installed in most places of work and homes due to optimal health and safety.
• This fire protection substance immediately evaporates after finishing the extinguishing process - making the aftermath easy to deal with.
• Novec 1230 leaves no residue after the fire meaning the cleaning procedure that typically occurs will not be necessary (perfect for sensitive and pricey equipment).
  

Disadvantages of Novec 1230

The Novec 1230 fluid clearly has some excellent benefits for many homes and businesses, but there are other fluids that will simply outperform Novec 1230 in certain situations. Take a look below to learn more about the disadvantages and whether this clean agent system suits your personal conditions.

• There are many other fire suppression systems on the market that are much more affordable to install. Not just the price of this can be expensive but the installation can be delicate to work with and take some professional craftsmanship to see optimal results.
• This is not commonly known in the industry and therefore can be harder to purchase - meaning that it can become a time-consuming task to refill your suppression system in time - in the case of another fire. 
• Can often take up more storage space as this fluid needs more compound in order to effectively protect you from ignited flames.
• More 3M Novec 1230 cylinders will have to be purchased, compared to a regular fire suppression system.

Is Novec 1230 Dangerous?

In short, compared to many other fire suppression systems - Novec 1230 is not considered harmful to humans. With this being a clean agent, this means that it has no ozone depletion potential and evaporates quickly - ensuring that the people surrounding the fire have no suffocation risk.

In shown studies, it has been tested that it doesn’t affect the human body in any way apart from possible minimal irritation of the eyes. This non-toxic fluid is not only excellent at its main purpose of extinguishing fires as quickly as possible, but humans will serve no major health ramifications. 

Additionally, in tests done by experts, this is not a cancerous chemical either, thus, if a fire does occur and you’re in the building as this chemical spreads - you will not have to stress about potential cancerous cells.

Novec 1230 vs FM-200: Highlighting the Similarities and Differences

One of the most common questions we see is how Novec 1230 and FM-200 differ in terms of their compound output and vice versa. Exploring the similarities and differences between the two will assist your decision of purchasing the right fire suppression system for your home or company:

Similarities

In reference to what the similarities are between these two compounds, the main similarity is that both of these chemicals are clean agents when released from the fire suppression cylinders. 

Furthermore, when released from the cylinders, they are both released as gases (carbon dioxide) during the beginning first stages of fire suppression.

Differences

The obvious difference is that they share different names which insinuate that they’re distinguishable fire suppressant agents. 

However, the differences are more apparent as you look closer into these two substances in detail. Although they share clean agent properties, Novec 1230 is widely renowned for being considerably more environmentally friendly. 

On top of that, Novec 1230 when located in its cylinders are stored as a liquid traditionally, whereas when you turn to FM-200 and assess the compound - it is stored as a gas instead. 

Overall, both of these clean agents are effective in different applications when serving the purpose of saving people’s lives and costly equipment - thus, installing a fire suppression system should always be a significant priority!