Alarm Management in enteliWEB

Quick Answer

enteliWEB receives BACnet alarm notifications from controllers, displays active alarms in a sortable summary, supports operator acknowledgment, routes notifications by email, and maintains a searchable alarm history log.

BACnet Alarm Architecture

BACnet controllers generate alarms based on intrinsic alarming (configured on the controller's BACnet objects) or algorithmic alarming. When alarm conditions occur, controllers send Event-Notification messages to enteliWEB, which must be registered as a notification recipient in the controller's Notification Class object.

Alarm Priority and Categories

Assign consistent priorities aligned with facility criticality: Critical (life safety, freezestat), High (equipment protection, high temperature), Medium (comfort complaints, scheduling overrides), Low (maintenance, filter change reminders).

Email Notification

Configure SMTP settings in enteliWEB administration. Create alarm routing rules based on priority, category, building, or time schedule. Route critical alarms to on-call engineers and medium/low alarms to facilities management email distribution lists.

Acknowledgment Workflow

Operators acknowledge alarms from the active alarm summary. Unacknowledged alarms remain flagged. All acknowledgment actions are logged with timestamp and username for audit purposes.

For comparison with industrial alarm management, see how Geo SCADA handles alarm routing and event management.

Best Practices

• Rationalize alarm limits based on actual process requirements, not arbitrary values
• Use time delays to filter transient HVAC conditions (startup transients, brief occupancy changes)
• Target fewer than 6 alarms per operator per hour during normal operations
• Review alarm logs monthly to identify chronic nuisance alarms