Tech Corner: Alarm Monitoring – When, Why and How?

Energy Management Systems installed by Provident Energy are designed and programmed to generate alarms that are sent over the internet to servers located in our offices that sort, prioritize and relay these alarms to our Technicians.

Broadly speaking, there are two types of alarms: Critical and Non-Critical Alarms. Critical Alarms are those alarms that are classified as affecting in-suite comfort. This would include things like Chiller Operation, Heating System, Domestic Hot Water, and Leak Detection Alarms. In these cases, these alarms are relayed to a primary Technician who is responsible for responding to these alarms.

When the Technician receives these Critical Alarms, they immediately start to investigate. This is needed to determine the nature of the Critical Alarm – has the building recently recovered from a power failure, or was the water shut off to the building for repairs, are storm and wind creating problems for boilers? After determining the nature of the alarm, the Technician will often need to contact your site staff in accordance with the contact procedures Property Management has put in place. Usually, this is a call to Security, who also has a contact procedure in place. 

Non-Critical Alarms are for those conditions which do not immediately affect in-suite comfort. An example of this might be a corridor fan. There is little advantage to calling in contractors on over-time to fix something that can wait until the next business day. In these situations, we do just that – wait until the next business day to contact your office.

Many alarms come into our servers that are used by our Technicians to help diagnose and repair problems in your building. Examples of this might include Coil Temperature Alarms. While the building might not be feeling too hot or too cold, an alarm could indicate that an Air Handling Unit is struggling to maintain the proper air temperature or that a supply water temperature might be too low. In these cases, our Technicians will take the steps necessary to tune your building and work with your contractors and building staff to optimize operation.