Minnechaug: The light has been on at this school – for a year and a half – business

The lights are on at Minnechaug High School. For a year and a half, around 7,000 lamps have been competing day and night. The magnificent brick building in the US state of Massachusetts can also be seen from afar at the weekend. energy crisis? Rising electricity prices? Minnechaug lights up.

The school wanted to install a “green lighting system” in 2012. The software should dim or turn off the light as needed. That saves energy and money, they say. It turned out differently. In August 2021, a software update for the lighting system went wrong. Since then, the smart system has been stupid. The lamps remain in the default setting: maximum brightness.

This leads to absurd situations. When a teacher wants to show a film, he unscrews the lightbulb, described the high school newspaper. The article appeared more than a year ago, and even then no one could laugh about it anymore. “It’s a waste of energy and we feel helpless,” the author quoted a responsible official as saying.

Thousands of dollars a month

Permanent lighting is not only harmful to the environment, but also expensive. “We are well aware that this is costing taxpayers a lot of money,” said the regional school district’s chief financial officer the US broadcaster NBC. After all, Minnechaug installed energy-saving lamps. With ordinary light bulbs, the cost would probably be in the tens of thousands of dollars a month, thanks to the LED lamps, a zero is eliminated.

That doesn’t appease the district council. The illuminated school building “conveys the image of waste at a time when many families are struggling with their own energy costs,” the MPs wrote in a letter to the school board. A number of citizens complained. Compared to other issues in the district, it is not a particularly expensive and urgent problem. “But it’s just, unfortunately, a visible one.”

So, with increasing desperation, Minnechaug tries to turn off the lighthouse against his will – and encounters hurdles that should be a warning to people who dream of a completely smart home. The company that installed the lighting system has changed hands several times in the meantime. It took weeks to even find anyone who was still familiar with the technology. After months, an offer came: 1.2 million dollars to install a new lighting system. Minnechaug politely declined.

The Minnechaug Regional High School in the US state of Massachusetts

(Photo: John Phelan / CC BY-SA 4.0)

After several failed repair attempts, it was decided to replace part of the system. The parts were ordered in November 2021, and work should begin in February 2022. But the pandemic affected production in China and disrupted supply chains. March turned into October, after all it was promised: during the Christmas holidays.

The students have long since returned, the light stays on. The head of the company responsible is now aiming for February to shroud Minnechaug in darkness again. The best news: This time they thought of an on/off switch that works even when the server is crazy.

source site