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LIGHTS BURN 24/7 FOR 2 YEARS, AND NO ONE CAN TURN THEM OFF
A Massachusetts high school has been unable to turn off its smart lighting system since August of 2021, not since the software running the system failed, leaving the lights on.
When Minnechaug Regional High School opted to have a smart lights system installed a decade ago, the goal was to save money and energy, but no one ever imagined that, one day, the 7,000 lights throughout the sprawling educational complex would run continuously, racking up a small fortune in electricity bills.
The lights at this suburban school in Wilbraham have been running continuously at full brightness since mid-2021, and the massive expense for electricity—now, when power has never been more expensive—is a blatant waste of taxpayers’ money. Unfortunately, there is no way to turn off the lights at this time.
“We are very much aware that this is costing taxpayers a significant amount of money,” Aaron Osborne, assistant school superintendent, said. “And we have been doing everything we can to get this problem solved.”
However, solving the problem is tougher than it sounds. The company that installed the smart lighting system did not bother to include physical light switches, relying instead on software to control all the 7,000 light bulbs. When that software failed in August 2021, leaving all the lights on, the school contacted the company that had installed the system, only to learn that there was not much to be done.
The original company which had installed the system had changed hands several times during the last decade and was now owned by another company called Reflex Lighting. They did not have access, anymore, to the software used on this particular project, so they said that the only way to fix the problem was to replace all the hardware (server, lighting control boards, etc.).
Because of supply chain issues in China caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, getting the parts required to finally turn off the 7,000 lights at Minnechaug Regional High School has proven to be very challenging. The repairs were supposed to be carried out in early 2022, but they got pushed back to later this year. Now, the lighting company claims that it has received all the necessary replacement parts and that the lights will finally be turned off next month.
“While we are hopeful this new schedule will be met, we are, of course, skeptical,” school officials said. “For now, the lights are still stuck on.”
Although the smart lights system uses highly efficient fluorescent and LED bulbs, the 7,000 lights throughout the high school still consume a lot of energy. It is hard to estimate how much taxpayer money it has cost to keep them running non-stop for 17 months, but it certainly adds up to a large amount.
Where possible, teachers have manually removed bulbs from fixtures in classrooms, and school staff has shut off breakers not connected to the main smart system, but the bulk of the lights have remained on since August 2021.
Paul Mustone, president of the Reflex Lighting, said that the problem will finally be fixed next month; he added that “yes, there will be an outside override switch, this time, so that this problem will not happen again.”
Still, it is astonishing that no one thought to install such a cut-off switch at the beginning.
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