Far too often, building operators are overwhelmed with the number of alarms generated on their building automation systems (BAS). This results in alarms being ignored, the critical ones not identified and addressed in a timely manner, and even decision paralysis. The alarms become a liability instead of an asset, and their intended purpose is lost. Such a scenario, where building operators are overwhelmed by alarms, is referred to as “alarm saturation” in this article.
There seems to be three common beliefs amongst building operators who are living in alarm saturation: