The school had installed smart lights but couldn’t switch them off two years ago

The Minnechaux Regional SchoolLocated in Hampden-Wilbraham, MassachusettsHe decided to replace all the lights in his building in 2021 Smart lights With the aim of greater energy savings and reduced costs. However, even though the education center has switched all its lights to 7,000 “smart” types, it has not been able to turn them off since mid-year when it decided to implement them.

As the chain specifies NBC7,000 school lights will remain lit all the time from August 2021, the date of their installation. “We are well aware that this is costing taxpayers a very significant amount of money. We are doing everything possible to solve the problem.”mentioned Aaron OsborneSuperintendent of Financial Aid in the Institute.

A problem caused by high technology

Although this light bulb change was done with the aim of saving electricity and money, the electricity bill of the school has been recorded in a large amount for more than 17 months, and this is not paid by the educational institute management, but by the government administration. Why can’t the managers of this building turn off the lights? The reason is that unlike conventional lamps, this lighting system does not have a switch.

When the school decided to install new lights, they opted for more advanced versions with no physical switches on the walls of the building. The system is controlled by centralized software on a single server, and in August 2021, a rare software glitch brought the lights down just in time.

The end of the dream is near

One possible solution to this problem is, of course, to call the company that installed the lights and ask them to turn off all the lights. Unfortunately, the company 5th light It closed and changed owners continuously since that date. Currently, it bears its name Reflex lighting panel And no one working on it has the slightest idea how to use the computer or how to access it.

The only way to fix this crash is to take the server offline and replace it with a new one. However, since the system also powers other devices such as electronic whiteboards, projectors, etc., all of these devices will not operate when the connection is restored. The school proposed a procedure to achieve this, but it failed to materialize due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the semiconductor crisis.

As of today, the school has pulled fuses on redundant systems and teachers have been instructed to unplug lights in classrooms to try to mitigate the problem as much as possible. However, many light points are installed in such a way that LEDs are inaccessible.

Paul MustonCurrent President Reflex lighting panelHe points out that the problem will be solved by installing a new system in February 2023, which will allow it to be turned off manually if something goes wrong again.

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