What do the different levels of pump alarm sensitivity mean? Are they based on some percentage?
Occasionally a pump becomes partially or completely clogged or otherwise drops substantially in performance. When this occurs, the graphs on the Pump Report will make this apparent at a glance. However, if such drop in performance persists for several cycles as continuously analyzed by the RTU at all times, a special Pump Performance Alarm will be created to notify users without waiting for the results to appear on the graphs. The sensitivity setting determines how severe and for how many cycles the performance must persist in order to generate such an alarm.
Some pump stations will experience wide and rapid variations in inflow that can occasionally cause false alarms. In such cases the sensitivity setting should be adjusted accordingly.
Pump performance alarms are not related to the starts ratio exactly. It has more to do with spotting possible clogged pumps.
There's an internal algorithm to spot clog cycles.
That is, a clogged pump may begin to pump poorly compared to its history. The sensitivity setting relates to how clogged a pump has to appear in order to cause an alarm. Low sensitivity means it really has to be very clogged before you get an alarm. High sensitivity means even a slightly clogged pump will cause the performance alarm. And medium is about midway between high and low."
In terms of percentage:
- High sensitivity to impairment efficiency equates to 40% impaired
- Medium sensitivity to impairment efficiency equates to 60% impaired
- Low sensitivity to impairment efficiency equates to 80% impaired
The pump performance alarm will clear at the scheduled basetime if the pump performance alarm condition no longer exists.