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Building alarm text notifications for the on-call operator

Building alarm text notification sends the alarms your BAS, door and generator systems already email to the on-call operator's phone. When a rooftop unit trips on a January night, the text names the building, the unit and the fault. Setup is one added email address. The front end and your controllers stay as they are.

Text me my building alarmsBook a demo

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  • Nothing installed on the BAS
  • Operators need no app
  • No per-user fees

Works by email with

  • Metasys
  • WebCTRL

Setup guide for

  • Niagara
  • Honeywell

A floor plan of Tower A: AHU-3 (supply air) goes into alarm, off normal, its room turns orange and BAS server emails the alert. The email reaches Welco and the phone shows: “Welco: [Tower A] AHU-3 supply air temp HIGH, 31 C, offnormal at 2:14 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.”

Animation: an alert email, "Alarm: Tower A AHU-3 Supply Air Temp", arrives at Welco and becomes one text to the night building operator: "Welco: [Tower A] AHU-3 supply air temp HIGH, 31 C, offnormal at 2:14 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."

What changes for your building operations team

  • The on-call operator hears about it tonight

    The building, the unit and the fault land on a phone, not on a front end in a dark mechanical room.

  • Nights and weekends reach one person

    Weekday alarms go to the maintenance shop. After 6 PM and all weekend, on-call routing texts whoever has the phone.

  • Only the alarms worth a drive

    Text the RTU fault, the forced door and the generator that failed to start. Filter runtime and return to normal stay in email.

  • Your BAS stays untouched

    No driver, no gateway and no new graphics. The front end gains one email recipient, and that is the whole change.

A rooftop unit fails at 9:42 on a January Friday night

The office tower is empty until Monday. Outside it is -24 C, and RTU-4 heats the floor with the sprinkler riser.

  1. The BAS emails the alarm, as it always has

    Alarm: Bldg 2 RTU-4 Supply Fan Failure / Offnormal / Unacked

  2. Welco picks the weekend on-call operator

    The sender is your approved BAS server. On weekends, HVAC alarms go to the weekend phone only.

  3. One text with the building, the unit and the fault

    Welco: [Bldg 2] RTU-4 supply fan failure, offnormal at 9:42 PM. Reply STOP to opt out.

  4. The operator answers from home

    Heading in now, 25 min out

  5. The reply lands back in email

    Welco emails each reply to the alarm's sender. Route alarms through a facilities mailbox people read, and the chief building operator sees who went in.

    Reply from the weekend phone: Heading in now, 25 min out

  6. The operator resets the unit and acks it at the front end

    Heat is back on the floor long before the pipes near the riser start to freeze.

  7. Return to normal stays out of texts

    A rule keeps the all-clear in email, so the phone stays quiet for the rest of the night.

Times are an example. Text delivery depends on mobile networks. A reply does not acknowledge the alarm in your BAS.

How do I get building alarm notifications on my phone?

Add your Welco address to the alarm email your system already sends, then pick who gets each alarm. It works the same for a BAS, a door controller or a generator panel. Your facilities lead can do the Welco side in one sitting. The emails you get today keep going where they go now.

  1. Sign up and invite your alarm crew

    Sign up with your work email, verify your business and book a short intro call. Then email an invite to each operator. Each one joins with their own cellphone and replies YES before any alarm reaches them.

  2. Add your Welco address to the alarm email

    In the BAS, door or generator software, add your Welco address as one more recipient. Approve that system's sender in Welco, because only approved sender addresses can trigger a text.

  3. Choose who gets which alarm, and when

    Set alert rules so door alarms go to security and HVAC alarms go to the mechanic. Then trip one safe alarm in silent test mode before you go live.

Your next building alarm can be a text

Verify your business, invite your facilities team and add one email address.

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing

Text me my building alarmsBook a demo

Pick your building system or alarm type

Each page shows the menus in that product, a sample alarm as email and as text, and the questions operators ask. Campus and hospital teams often start with Johnson Controls Metasys alarm SMS or Automated Logic WebCTRL alarm texts. Running Delta Controls or Distech Controls? Send its alarm email to Welco, as with any system that sends email.

What building alarm texts look like

Each text keeps the place, the problem and the time. The long email stays in your inbox for the record.

  • Door held open: Welco: [East Wing] Stair 2 door held open 4 min at 10:52 PM. Reply STOP to opt out.
  • Boiler fault: Welco: [Plant] Boiler 1 flame failure, lockout at 4:37 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.
  • Power failure: Welco: [Annex] Utility power fail, generator running, ATS on emergency at 5:18 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.

A phone showing these alert texts: Door held open, "Welco: [East Wing] Stair 2 door held open 4 min at 10:52 PM. Reply STOP to opt out."; Boiler fault, "Welco: [Plant] Boiler 1 flame failure, lockout at 4:37 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."; Power failure, "Welco: [Annex] Utility power fail, generator running, ATS on emergency at 5:18 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."

After-hours building alarms, before and after Welco

How alarms get missed today

  • The BAS front end shows the alarm on a workstation in an empty office.
  • Alarm emails pile up in a shared inbox under daily reports and all-clears.
  • The old phone number trick went quiet. Bell switched off its email to text gateway at the end of 2025, as its end-of-life FAQ explains.
  • Paging tools bill per seat and want every operator to install an app.

How alarms reach a person with Welco

  • The on-call phone gets one short text with the building, the unit and the fault.
  • Rules text the urgent alarms and leave reports and clears in email.
  • One address replaces the dead gateway. See the email to text gateway shutdown for what changed.
  • Plain texts on any mobile phone, with no per-user fees.

Which building alarms should send a text?

Text the alarms that get worse if they wait until Monday. In a Canadian winter, that list starts with heat. Everything else can stay on the front end or in email.

Who uses building alarm texts

Anyone who gets the call when a building misbehaves after hours. Plants use the same setup for SCADA alarm notification by text.

Settings facility teams turn on first

Each one is a setting in Welco. None of them changes your BAS.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to replace my BAS to get alarm texts?

No. Welco uses the alarm emails your BAS or BMS already sends. You add your Welco address where the alarm emails go and approve the sender. If your controls contractor holds the front end login, the change is one recipient, not a project.

What will my operators see on their phone? Do they need an app?

They see a normal text that starts with Welco: and names the building, the unit and the fault. No app is needed, and any mobile phone on Rogers, Bell, Telus or another network works. Each person joins from your invite with their own number and replies YES first. They can text STOP at any time to leave.

Can door alarms and HVAC alarms go to different people?

Yes. Alert rules can match the sender, the subject or words like Door Forced or AHU. Each rule picks its own phones and its own hours. Security gets doors, the mechanic gets heating and cooling, and the weekend phone gets both after Friday at 6 p.m.

What happens when the power blinks and every point alarms at once?

That burst is called an alarm flood, and ice storms cause plenty of them. Flood control limits how many texts each phone gets, so the on-call operator sees a few texts that say something is wrong. The full list stays on the front end. A rule can also drop return-to-normal messages.

Can the on-call operator acknowledge the alarm by replying to the text?

No. A reply comes back as an email to the alarm's sender, so the office can see who answered. Replies use message credits, the same as alarm texts. The alarm is still acknowledged at the front end, as it is today.

Does Welco connect to our BAS or building network?

No. Welco only receives the email your BAS sends out. Nothing reaches into the controllers, and no port is opened inbound. Only senders you approve can trigger texts, so a stranger can't text your crew by guessing the address.

Is this a replacement for our fire alarm or security monitoring company?

No. Welco sends your building alarms to your own staff as texts. Fire alarm monitoring and emergency response must stay with your monitoring company and the systems your code requires.

How much do building alarm texts cost?

Building teams pay no per-user fees, no hardware costs and no setup fee. A short BAS alarm uses one message credit, and long ones use more unless a rule trims them. The free trial gives you 7 days and 15 credits to test real alarms. Plans are priced in US dollars with no overage charges, and pricing lists each one.

Put your building alarms on the on-call phone

Add your Welco address to the alarm email your BAS, door or generator system already sends.

Text me my building alarmsBook a demo

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing