https://www.nbcnews.com/news/u...e-can-turn-rcna65611

Local school installed fancy computer controlled lighting system, designed to automatically adjust the lights to save energy.

Then the pandemic came, something broke, and the lights have all been shining brightest ever since -- because that's their fail-safe/default setting. Teachers cannot dim or switch off the lights to show slideshows or instructional videos. The school stays fully lit throughout the nights. The lights cannot be dimmed or switched off unless someone flips the electrical circuit breakers.

The business that installed the original system has since changed hands many times, so it was hard finding anyone who knows the original system to come up with a viable repair plan. Even after a repair plan has been made, they have been delayed multiple times for lack of parts -- just couldn't get the necessary parts from China due to pandemic supply chain issues.

This is our first world problem. Other parts of the world have problems keeping their schools' lights on. We cannot switch ours off due to too much automation, not enough manual overrides, and an over reliance on the global supply chain.

I worked with our local high school marching band for 5 years - they have a fancy computerized lighting system installed in the high school. Every hour on the hour starting at 4pm, the lights would switch off in every classroom. Pretty annoying if you were in the middle of a rehearsal, but we learned to work around it - the mallet players got surprisingly good at continuing to play in the pitch dark. Even worse were the Saturday rehearsals where some of the classroom hallway lights were set to their dimmest setting and there was no switch to change them. You'd be fumbling around trying to use your phone flashlight so you could see to unlock the classroom door. And it was pretty typical to send the different sections of instruments into different areas of the building to practice their individual musical parts....which became orders of magnitude harder when half the building was pitch dark and you couldn't change it. I usually resorted to "go find a spot by a window somewhere."

After reading that article, I guess I should be grateful that the lights didn't get stuck on the brightest setting though....at least it was functioning as intended and I assume saving money for the district (at the expense of annoying the heck out of anyone in the building after hours trying to do anything productive.)

Pretty common while tuning pianos in classrooms that the lights go off after 10 or 15 minutes - Usually standing up and waving gets them back on. I do know one tech carries a few "Koosh balls" to toss across the room to get the lights to come back on!

I did tune in one home where the piano room lights were smart lights and the wife had to call the husband at work to turn them brighter...

quote:

the lights go off after 10 or 15 minutes

This annoys me to no end when it's an office or something. In my building at work there are several offices that have these motion-activated light switches, but some how I've lucked out and not been stuck in one. One of my friend's office has that light switch and the motion sensor is not very sensitive, so she has to get up from her desk, take a few steps toward the light switch and vigorous wave her arms....

Probably got for her circulation though.

quote:

Originally posted by ShiroKuro:
One of my friend's office has that light switch and the motion sensor is not very sensitive, so she has to get up from her desk, take a few steps toward the light switch and vigorous wave her arms....

If you think that's annoying, wait until you find a switch/sensor installed in a restroom.

Too bad the article didn't mention who made the failed system - 2012 was the dark ages as far as lighting controls. I might guess but I'm not remembering any systems that went in with no override capacity at all. Arrogant bit of engineering, that.

I do remember removing a number of systems back then - and installing override switches on others.