Remote monitoring systems and methods

1. A method of monitoring operating equipment comprising:

selecting a piece of equipment to be monitored;

selecting a plurality of operating parameters of the piece of equipment to monitor;

obtaining a present value for each of the plurality of operating parameters;

defining an acceptable range for each of the plurality of operating parameters;

calculating a deviation percentage for each of the plurality of operating parameters based on the present value and the acceptable range for each of the plurality of operating parameters;

calculating a composite index for the piece of equipment using a summation of squares of each deviation percentage, wherein the summation is divided by a square root of a cardinality of the plurality of operating parameters to obtain the composite index;

and

presenting the composite index.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising defining a warning range and a failure range for each of the operating parameters.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising defining an acceptable range, a warning range, and a failure range for the composite index.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising alerting a user when the composite index is outside of the acceptable range for the composite index.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein presenting the composite index comprises displaying the composite index on a user interface.

6. A method of monitoring operating equipment comprising:

(a) selecting a piece of equipment to be monitored;

(b) selecting a plurality of operating parameters of the piece of equipment to monitor;

(c) obtaining a present value for each of the plurality of operating parameters;

(d) defining an acceptable range for each of the plurality of operating parameters;

(e) calculating a deviation percentage for each of the plurality of operating parameters based on the present value and the acceptable range for each of the plurality of operating parameters;

(f) calculating a composite index for the piece of equipment using a summation of squares of each deviation percentage, wherein the summation is divided by a square root of a cardinality of operating parameters to obtain the composite index;

(g) repeating steps (c), (d), (e), and (f) a plurality of times to obtain a set of composite indices;

(h) calculating a rate of change of the composite index using the set of composite indices; and

(i) presenting the rate of change of the composite index.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising defining a warning range and a failure range for each of the operating parameters.

8. The method of claim 6 , further comprising defining an acceptable range, a warning range, and a failure range for the composite index.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising alerting a user when the composite index is outside of the acceptable range for the composite index.

10. The method of claim 6 , wherein presenting the rate of change of the composite index comprises displaying the rate of change of the composite index on a user interface.

11. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions for monitoring operating equipment, the instructions causing a processor to:

select a piece of equipment to be monitored; select a plurality of operating parameters of the piece of equipment to monitor; obtain a present value for each of the plurality of operating parameters; define an acceptable range for each of the plurality of operating parameters;

calculate a deviation percentage for each of the plurality of operating parameters based on the present value and the acceptable range for each of the plurality of operating parameters;

calculate a composite index for the piece of equipment using a summation of squares of each deviation percentage, wherein the summation is divided by a square root of a cardinality of the plurality of operating parameters to obtain the composite index; and

present the composite index.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the instructions further comprise functionality to define a warning range and a failure range for each of the operating parameters.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the instructions further comprising functionality to define an acceptable range, a warning range, and a failure range for the composite index.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the instructions further comprise functionality to alert a user when the composite index is outside of the acceptable range for the composite index.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein functionality to present the composite index comprises functionality to display the composite index on a user interface.