Massachusetts School Hasn't Been Able To Turn Off The Lights For Over A Year

Discussion in 'Energy & Fuel' started by John Brunner, Jan 23, 2023.

  1. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I know it's not polite to laugh, but I just can't help myself. The article extracts pretty much tell it all...

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    WILBRAHAM, Mass. — For nearly a year and a half, a Massachusetts high school has been lit up around the clock because the district can’t turn off the roughly 7,000 lights in the sprawling building.

    One of the cost-saving measures the school board insisted on was a “green lighting system” run on software installed by a company called 5th Light to control the lights in the building. The system was designed to save energy — and thus save money — by automatically adjusting the lights as needed. The lighting system was installed at Minnechaug Regional High School when it was built over a decade ago and was intended to save money and energy. But ever since the software that runs it failed on Aug. 24, 2021, the lights in the Springfield suburbs school have been on continuously, costing taxpayers a small fortune.

    “We are very much aware this is costing taxpayers a significant amount of money,” Aaron Osborne, the assistant superintendent of finance at the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District, told NBC News. “And we have been doing everything we can to get this problem solved.”
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    In the meantime, gas stoves. It's wicked stupid.
     
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  2. Thomas Stillhere

    Thomas Stillhere Very Well-Known Member
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    The local High School I can see from my bedroom window and their stadium. The lights there are sometimes left on all night and it come right into my window. Believe it or not they have been busy the past week raising new stadium field lights so that will double the lighting. The school doesn't pay for the electricity it is paid by taxpayer but I have no idea what office does the paying. They have raised fence all around the stadium and football field and I once could see the field but not now.
     
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  3. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I would think that you get a breather in between football season and baseball season.
     
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  4. Thomas Stillhere

    Thomas Stillhere Very Well-Known Member
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    It does get a bit loud over there. They have the baseball field a lot closer to me since it is on the very end of the property. The fence messed it up and I can't see anything, of course if I wanted I could just go over and go inside or crawl over the fence. heh
     
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  5. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    Shhhhh....
    OpSec
     
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  6. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    I saw that story the other day. It made me wonder if they might want some of those heated sidewalks that the Biden legislation is installing.
     
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  7. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    Is that project in Hawaii?
     
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  8. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    No, the Hawaiian project is having one guy count the grains of sand on Waikiki Beach so they can prove that climate change has damaged the shoreline.
     
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  9. John West

    John West Very Well-Known Member
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    One person alone can be pretty dumb but for real, industrial-strength stupidity; look to a progressive, green-leaning school board.
     
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  10. Thomas Stillhere

    Thomas Stillhere Very Well-Known Member
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    I don't know about counting all those grains of sand but couldn't it be done on site from where they buy it from ?
     
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  11. Mary Stetler

    Mary Stetler Veteran Member
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    I use a butter knife as a screw driver sometimes. Can't the last person out just pull the lever next to the breaker box or whatever is built into the system? I carry a flashlight at all times for such situations.
     
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  12. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    If someone were to pull the main power switch, it would screw up the software so badly that they could never get the lights turned back on again.
     
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  13. Mary Stetler

    Mary Stetler Veteran Member
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    I am definitely staying in a stupid house.
     
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  14. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    My power company is a co-op, and they have annual member meetings which I attend. They also recently ran fiber-optic cable to everyone's home so we can all have fast internet. That opens up a who bunch of "smart stuff" that can be remotely controlled/monitored. When that was raised at the meeting--even if we were lured by saving money--everyone gave a resounding "No way!!"

    Right before that meeting, there had been a story about a utility in Colorado cutting off people's heat remotely after the folks installed Remote Metering and Smart Devices to "save money." I've read comments elsewhere to this school story from people who have had the "smart software" installed in commercial settings, and they have been forced to do a bunch of stupid stuff manually because no one can get the systems to work properly after 6 years. Yeh, "stupid home" looks smarter and smarter.
     
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  15. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    So you all voted no to high-speed internet?
     
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