The main building of Minnechaug High School dates back to 1959 and was completely renovated in 2012. One of the saving measures considered essential at the time was the installation of a “green lighting system”, which works with a software to control building lights. This should automatically adjust the artificial light as needed, with a view to saving energy and therefore money.
And when the system crashed, the trouble began. “The lighting system has gone into default mode,” said Aaron Osborne, the school district’s assistant superintendent of finances. “And the default position of the lighting system causes the lights to be on.”
A problem that disrupts lessons, teachers being unable to dim the light to project a video for example, and which obviously costs taxpayers a lot of money.
An intervention next February
The company that had installed the lighting changed hands several times. Several weeks passed before the company might find someone familiar with the school’s lighting system. Fixing the faulty software via an update was not possible and a complete system replacement was not an option, with an estimated cost of over a million dollars.
The parts needed to replace part of the equipment were therefore ordered at the end of 2021, but the Covid pandemic has put many factories in slow motion, the deadlines have lengthened.
Work is now scheduled for next February. “And yes, there will be a remote control switch so that this does not happen once more,” said the company boss in charge of the work.
Where possible, teachers have manually removed light bulbs in classrooms, while staff have turned off circuit breakers not connected to the main system to turn off some outdoor lights, NBC further details.
While waiting for the intervention, the building continues to shine and engulf the watts.
For nearly a year and a half, roughly 7,000 lights have been lit up around the clock at Minnechaug Regional High School.
A software fail in 2021 made it impossible to turn them off and taxpayers are picking up the bill. https://t.co/57EbQK5vSi
— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 24, 2023