The Critical Alarm functionality most specifications don't address

Are you overwhelmed with how fast the BAS market is changing?

Do you find yourself struggling to keep up with systems and how to evaluate them?

Are you looking for an easy way to consistently evaluate BAS's that is vendor neutral?

If so you are in the right spot. This is the third article in a 10-part series on how to evaluate your building automation systems.

I remember when I first started in the BAS space, I struggled to put things together and understand all the intricacies of systems. If it wasn't for a network of mentors I wouldn't be where I am today. I've been in your shoes and I am going to show you a sure-fire way to evaluate BAS's to make sure you select the system that is right for you.

Why this came about

I've gotten multiple e-mails from subscribers asking me how to evaluate building automation systems. I searched Google high and low and while there was plenty of "sponsored" articles there were no agnostic articles that laid out the facts and only the facts.

Fortunately, that's why you all have me. As you know, I am the voice in the wilderness, reaching out and teaching our community.

Ok, enough of the cheesy metaphors.

Seriously though, there weren't any independent articles that I could find and everything I did find was written by a manufacturer.

Criteria 3: Alarming

Alarming, no single characteristic of Building Automation Systems has caused more problems than alarms. However, many of these problems can be avoided,if you know upfront what you want in regards to capabilities. In Criteria #3 I will give you this knowledge!

The Criteria

#3 Alarming

When it comes to alarming I've seen the good, the bad, and the just plain weird... I've been to buildings with 50,000 unacknowledged alarms, I've seen customers purposely expose their BAS to the internet just to avoid losing connectivity, and I've seen great setups that prioritize and route alarm messages. In this section I am going to take that collective knowledge and wrap into three buckets that you can use to evaluate your BAS's alarming capabilities

• Alarm Prioritization
• Alarm Sequencing
• Alarm Transmission

They way I ordered these capabilities is by design. If you can prioritize your alarms then you can properly sequence them to the right person. It is only after you know who the right person to send the alarm to that you can actually send the alarm out effectively.

Alarm Prioritization

Alarm prioritization is all about making sure the important alarms show up and are not crowded out by unimportant alarms. This seems simple in theory but can get complex when the concept of important varies from user to user. For example, power could be a very important measurement point for a plant operator but not for a technician. That is why when I discuss the topic of prioritization I specify that the prioritization must be contextually aware.

This means that the system is aware of who is signed into the system and the points that are important to him/her. This takes some work upfront but if you read my article on BAS optimization you will understand how to create these standards.

My Recommendation

My recommendation is that you ensure that any system you put in has the capability at a minimum, to apply prioritization to alarms. You do not want dirty filter alarms reporting at the same priority as a failed plant controller.

Alarm Sequencing

Alarm sequencing involves two things one is repetition and the other is escalation. They both build upon one another. Once alarm is triggered the person who the alarm is sent to, should have a certain amount of time to acknowledge the alarm, based on the alarms priority level. If this alarm is not acknowledged then the alarm is repeated and escalated to the next level person. This is a very important concept, yet it is one that I've seen very few solutions implement. The reason behind this is that creating and maintaining the escalation map is difficult as people enter and leave the organization.

My Recommendation

My recommendation is that you do not let progress be the enemy of perfection. If you cannot implement alarm escalation, you should at least try to implement alarm repetition. In this case at least the person who is receiving the alarm will get continuously notified until they address the alarm condition.

Alarm Transmission

In today's day and age there are so many ways to send information and it seems a new way pops up everyday. The good news is that in the BAS world the format in which alarms are transmitted has remained relatively constant. The primary forms for communicating alarms are e-mail, SMS text, paging, and Simple Network Management Protocol. Using these four forms of transmission you can cover the majority of communication methods.

My Recommendation

My recommendation is that you at a minimum support e-mail transmission and one more form of transmission. The reason behind this is if your e-mail server dies, you still have another method of transmitting alarms to you staff.

So how then do you evaluate Alarming?

Alarm Prioritization

You would put the following verbiage in your Request For Proposal (RFP) or Request For Qualification (RFQ).

Please detail out how your alarms are prioritized and how your prioritization works

The table below details out how you would rank the responses.

[table caption="Alarm Prioritization" width="100%" colwidth="50|100" colalign="Left|left"]
Ranking Score, Ranking Description

0, The alarms cannot be prioritized
1, The alarms have preset priorities that cannot be adjusted
2, The alarms have priorities that can be adjusted through a vendor programming tool
3, The alarms have priorities that can be adjusted by the end-user
[/table]

Alarm Sequencing

You would put the following verbiage in your Request For Proposal (RFP) or Request For Qualification (RFQ).

Please detail out how your alarms are sequenced and the sequencing capabilities of your alarming system.

The table below details out how you would rank the responses.

[table caption="Alarm Sequencing" width="100%" colwidth="50|100" colalign="Left|left"]
Ranking Score, Ranking Description

0, The alarms cannot be sequenced
1, The alarms have preset sequences that cannot be changed
2, The alarm sequences can be changed by a vendor
3, The alarm sequences can be changed by the end-user
[/table]

Alarm Transmission

You would put the following verbiage in your Request For Proposal (RFP) or Request For Qualification (RFQ).

Please detail out your alarms are transmitted and the transmission capabilities of your alarming system.

The table below details out how you would rank the responses.

[table caption="Alarm Transmission" width="100%" colwidth="50|100" colalign="Left|left"]
Ranking Score, Ranking Description

0, The alarms cannot be transmitted outside the BAS
1, The alarms only support e-mail transmission outside the BAS
2, The alarms can support e-mail and paging SMS text outside the BAS
3, The alarms can support e-mail paging SMS text and SNMP outside the BAS
[/table]