Alarms
The key to customer satisfaction is ensuring that no resident ever wakes up to a cold shower, or a lack of heat or cooling in their suite. This is the whole basis for monitoring the building plant. In these situations, Provident will take whatever steps are necessary to bring critical systems back online as quickly as possible. Our first step is to contact the building immediately, regardless of the time of day. Provident will even take measures to bring equipment on-line using our own resources should Provident or your staff be unable to contact your contractor of choice.
Maintenance Required
Where mode alarms are sent to our monitoring station for further action, logging and archiving.
Scenarios where these alarms would occur include:
A component of the building plant that is not operating correctly, but does not affect comfort or operation of the system as a whole. (Example: 1 of 3 boilers is ‘down’, or 1 of 2 main pumps are ‘down’)
A failure of non-critical systems. If a fan stops working at 3 A.M. there is little point of waking up the on-site staff to fix a problem that can wait until the morning.
Your facility is notified of maintenance required alarms during normal office hours so that you may schedule and plan repairs in the most cost effective manner.
Critical Failure
Where mode alarms are sent directly to one of our staff for immediate action and resolution. The system is configured so that our staff are alerted every 5 minutes until we have your authority to de-activate the critical alarm.
Scenarios where these alarms would occur include:
A failure of a system that would affect the comfort of the building as a whole. For example:
Heating System
Cooling System
Hot Water System
Specific Life Safety Systems such as CO, CH4, Flood, Sump, Sanitary System...
Temporary critical list - systems that property management wants to monitor to solve a specific problem, for example vandalism of equipment, isolation of noise problems, return from long term power outages...
Your facility is notified of critical failure alarms immediately - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Troubleshooting
For Emergency service please call
Basic Trouble Shooting
Should you suspect a problem with your energy management system:
Check your equipment operation manual and schedule of operation to determine if the equipment should be on or off.
Confirm that switches are in the AUTO or REMOTE position. If the equipment operates in the HAND or LOCAL position - the equipment is OFF due to the energy management system. If you believe the equipment should be in the ON state, please call the telephone number above.
If the equipment does not operate in either the HAND/LOCAL or AUTO/REMOTE position there is almost always a problem with the equipment itself. In this case:
Check fuses and breakers
Check freeze protection thermostats (freezestats) and limits, reset electronic ignitions by turning off then on
Check flow switch and low water cut-off
Check safety devices (air flow switch, overloads, fusible links, etc.)
Check for excessive or low system pressures (check expansion tank sight glass and/or system pressure)
Check for local controls in series with energy management controls
Controlled Equipment
Here is just some of the energy saving measures that can be implemented through the use of an energy management system:
Free Heating and Cooling:
At outdoor air temperatures between 64°F (18°C) and 74°F (23°C), it is possible to operate fans without modulating supply air temperatures. Savings result from not operating gas heating stages and primary and glycol pumps. The specific application depends on the type of fan and its purpose - most typically this is applied to corridor fans
Chilled Water Setpoint Control:
In the same way as heating water supply temperature can be varied with outdoor air temperatures, chilled water is also controlled. At cooler outdoor air temperatures the chilled water is run warmer.
Chiller On/Off Control:
The chiller is operated under an on/off dead-band. Using the average of both the north and south outdoor air temperatures, the chiller is turned off below 52°F(11°C) and back on above 55°F(13°C). Sampling of temperatures over a 15 minute sliding window, eliminates frequent cycling. Using north and south sensors compensates for solar load. Often this is modified so that 60% of the average outdoor air temperature is determined by the south sensor.
Domestic Hot Water Set-Back:
Maintaining domestic hot water at a 145°F(63°C) in the middle of the night, is a waste of energy. Typically, most appliances (dishwashers, laundry machines, etc.) require a temperature of 120°F(49°C). The domestic hot water temperature is changed according to peak, off-peak and night periods. Typically, the peak is used for mealtimes, the off-peak at all other times of the day, and night, of course, between 1:00am and 5:30am.
Weekend and Holiday Scheduling:
Provident maintains an on-going dialogue with property management and analyzes demand patterns to determine where set-backs can be achieved. Religious holidays and special events are programmed to reflect higher demands on domestic hot water during those times where families may be entertaining, hosting visitors, and otherwise using hot water at irregular times.
Suite Heating Control:
Non-linear heating supply water is modulated according to outdoor air temperature. Provident has spent considerable resources in determining proper required temperatures and this is a proprietary energy management strategy.
Primary Boiler System Control:
The energy management system determines what the lowest possible operating temperature for the primary boiler system is, as determined by demand of the heating system, basement loop, fan heating, and domestic hot water systems.
Lead Rotation:
The lead boiler is rotated daily, to ensure equal run-time.
Freeze Protection:
During fan-shut down (see the next item) all pumps are normally programmed to go off with the fan. During cold weather, the pumps (primary and glycol) are run continuously and the 3-way valve is set to the mid-position.
Fan Time-Of-Day Control:
Corridor fans are shut down during the night. Freeze protection is in effect year round and will activate automatically during cold weather.
Snow Melting Control:
A precipitation sensor and outdoor air temperature determine when the electric ramp heating is to be activated. There is a significant savings when compared to security and/or timer control.
Valve and Pump Control:
All systems using pumps and valves derive benefit from the energy management system through dead-band (time and temperature based) control and, in the case of valves, PID (proportional integral derivative) loop control.
