An American school has been experiencing an unusual situation since August 2021. It was on that date that they decided to change their lighting to smart lights, with the aim of saving energy and money. However, since then, they have not been able to turn off the lights. The reason? A great little detail: the lack of a physical switch.
A school located in Massachusetts, United States, installed smart lights to save energy and reduce costs, however, since its implementation in 2021, they have not been able to turn them off.
The unusual situation is carried out by the Minnechaug Regional School. As described by RPP News, it was in August 2021 that the establishment decided to change all its lighting to smart lights. In total, they modified 7,000 light bulbs, and that same month the problems began.
To the date, the lights have been on for more than 17 months, which, without a doubt, generates large figures to pay. However, the disbursement is not from the administration of the institution, but from the public administration.
“We are very aware that this is costing taxpayers a very significant amount of money. We are doing everything possible to solve the problem”, said the assistant superintendent of finance at the institution, Aaron Osbourne.
A great little detail
The objective was only one: to save energy and money. But what went wrong? Contrary to conventional lights, the lighting system chosen by the school does not have a switch.
When choosing a modern version of lighting, the establishment opted for an option “too advanced”: it does not have physical switches on the walls of the building.
As reported by our partner outlet, “the system is controlled by centralized, single-server software, and in August 2021, a rare glitch in this software caused the lights to stop turning off when they were supposed to.”
Solution in sight?
Once the problem was identified, an attempt was made to find a solution. One of the options was for the company that installed the system to go out and turn off the lights, but 5th Light went out of business and has since changed owners. Today, it’s called the Reflex Lighting Group, and no one knows how the lighting in question operates.
However, the current president of the firm, Paul Mustone, stated that by February 2023 there will be a definitive solution to the problem, through the installation of a new system that does have switches to turn it off manually.
Currently, to try to cope with the period, the school pulled unnecessary fuses and teachers were instructed to unscrew the light bulbs in the classrooms.