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US school runs lights 24/7/365: The smart lights have been broken since 2021
The lights at Massachusetts' Minnechaug Regional High School burn ever bright. They actually never turn off. They can't turn off. The smart lighting system for the entire building is broken, and it's stuck in the "on" position. It has apparently been this way for over a year now, and the electric bills are really starting to pile up.
“We are very much aware this is costing taxpayers a significant amount of money,” the school district's assistant superintendent of finance, Aaron Osborne, told NBC News. “And we have been doing everything we can to get this problem solved.”
The school's entire "green lighting system," some 7,000 lights, was installed over a decade ago and was supposed to save money, but according to the report, "the software that runs it failed on Aug. 24, 2021" and no one has been able to turn off the lights for the following 17 months. Teachers are adjusting by unscrewing light bulbs at the end of the day and throwing some breakers not connected to vital parts of the school. Dimming the lights to show movies or something projected on a whiteboard has also been difficult: The lights are on full brightness all the time.
[...]
The problem with new parts is that this has all been in the middle of the pandemic and a huge chip shortage, so the parts have been back-ordered and delayed several times. The process of fixing the system was originally supposed to start in February 2022, but they can't get the parts. The next missed date was October 2022, and the school isn't expecting a repair until February 2023. The lights remain on.
That looks like an excellent Case Study in how not to do something. In this case, how not to implement a "smart" lights system. In the event that your fancy new lights don't work. You need to be able to turn them off.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 23, @07:13PM
Maintenance contracts...
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday January 23, @10:05PM (5 children)
I don't know the backstory details, but it sounds like the kind of thing I do, could help with, fix, be resourceful and find solutions, rewire it, add manual switches, simple timers, etc. I don't know if they've posted a job ad but I wonder if they've asked the community for help? There are probably many in the local community, including student parents, who might be engineers, technicians, electricians, etc., who could help. Maybe it's locked up in "red tape", bureaucracy, union regulations, contracts, and other legal mess.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DannyB on Monday January 23, @10:30PM (4 children)
There are people here on this fine forum who could fix it.
But things like: liability, insurance, and other red tape you mention. Possibly needing to be bonded. Have a background check since you are going into a school.
OMG what if there is a fire! Must need some kind of professional license!
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday January 23, @11:45PM (3 children)
I haven't yet established an official business. Most of the hands-on occasional work / gigs I've done where you would want (need!) liability insurance, state registration, etc., I do under someone else's business / license. It's generally referred to as "underwritten".
Funny you used the word "bonded"- the electricians who take themselves very seriously, as well they probably should, use the word "bonded" referring to grounding (earthing on the other side of the pond), especially when referring to various fittings, boxes, conduit, etc. being properly grounded.
Generally, in my state anyway, you don't have to have trade licenses, but for example electrical work is supposed to be permitted with official plans, then inspected by licensed inspectors.
I haven't gotten the background check for going into schools, and I'm not sure of the latest on that. A few years ago I went into schools to record band concerts, but maybe things have changed again. I think guests are okay with an escort.
You don't need a license to cause a fire, but without a license you might get fired.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday January 24, @02:57PM (2 children)
fired and fried.
By "bonded" I meant that someone says, I have $500,000 here that says RS3 is an honest man. That way if a pencil goes missing while you were working, the school can successfully sue to recover damages.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday January 24, @03:53PM (1 child)
Ah. So don't use the $500,000 military spec. pencils then. :)
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday January 24, @04:45PM
No, those are reserved for the "special projects". https://www.quotes.net/mquote/46699 [quotes.net]
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Funny) by krishnoid on Tuesday January 24, @01:31AM (2 children)
Seems like they're doing their job in that they're providing, you know, "light". Also, couldn't the maintenance staff be responsible for throwing that breaker at the end of the day? And couldn't they hire a white-hat or offer extra credit to a student or group of students who could figure out how to get the software working again?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 24, @01:27PM (1 child)
> throwing that breaker at the end of the day
I was curious about using a breaker as a routine switch. Several different sites suggest that this isn't a great idea and may result in premature failure of the breaker, unless a specific type of breaker is used. Here's one:
https://www.mikeholt.com/mojonewsarchive/NEC-HTML/HTML/ElectricalCircuitBreakers~20020419.htm [mikeholt.com]
Of course, in the case of this "always on" high school system, replacing some breakers might be cheaper than running all those lights!
(Score: 3, Touché) by krishnoid on Tuesday January 24, @04:03PM
It would definitely provide more visibility, once the breakers start failing intermittently and moving the software fix up as a priority. They'll probably just lock the breaker box, though.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Saturday January 28, @04:22PM (1 child)
Is smart lighting some kind of federal education dept thing, so everything got done simultaneously and shittily?
The problem at my kids school was they hired a guy in a wheelchair as some kind of admin type, which is fine, but nobody told the smart switch guys to aim their motion sensor low, and it would take years and piles of paperwork to re-hire the smart building consultants to fix it, so to avoid imperial entanglements WRT the ADA, they shut off the smart lights in his office so his office is the only room in the school with old fashioned floor lamps, or so they say. All it takes is wall outlets and floor lamps. He turned it into a "thing" to amuse the students so he collected weird old ancient cool looking floor lamps from Goodwill and put low wattage LED bulbs in them so his office has like 20 floor lamps, at least some of which work, and the art kids painted some, etc. So he's got an entire yearbook page about his floor lamp collection. Which is an interesting identity to have instead of being known as "the wheelchair guy" he's known as "the lamp guy".
Anyway I'd put a pretty good guess this "smart sensors epic fail" as something to do with ADA and wheelchairs specifically, as smart sensors are dumb enough even with people who can stand up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 28, @10:09PM
Always amazes me how Republicans are allowed to corrupt and destroy government programs and then their loyal idiots who care more about culture and race wars say stupid shit like gubmint baaad.
Government can be good or bad, and the last 50 years have proven that Republicans overwhelmingly make government bad while stealing from the poor to give the rich tax breaks. Civics is probably some big co spuracy to Republicans!