The lights at a Minnechaug area high school in Massachusetts, USA, were left on 24 hours a day due to a software glitch in the lighting system. The lights could not be turned off as the entire lighting system was stuck in the “on” position. This has been going on for over a year, and the electricity bills keep piling up. The district’s financial assistant acknowledged that it was a waste of taxpayer money and said it has been working hard to fix the problem. The high school has about 7,000 lights, which were installed more than a decade ago as a green lighting system to save money, but the system software failed on August 24, 2021 and has not been turned on for 17 months. People can no longer turn off the lights. To turn off some lights, teachers would unscrew light bulbs after school and disconnect circuit breakers that were not connected to critical sections. Because the lights are always on, it becomes extremely difficult to play video or project. Why can’t anyone fix software? Because the company that installed the school’s lighting system has changed hands several times, it no longer has access to proprietary software to fix anything. Repair means that hardware needs to be replaced. Due to hardware shortages during the new crown epidemic, repair work will not start until February this year. The incident left valuable lessons for smart building design: don’t over-rely on technology, and keep physical switches for lights still important.
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