Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Amazingawesomator t1_j56huvx wrote

Wait a minute.... Part of this high tech lighting package didnt include manual light switches?

What if its movie day?

322

ToxicAdamm t1_j570h0w wrote

When you are bidding on a project, you are incentivized to come in at the lowest price possible. So, you skimp on 'features' and then try to upsell them (at twice the price) once you won the bid.

The other sneaky thing you can do is use off-the-shelf parts, obscure the mfg part# and renumber it with your own number. Then when the customer needs to replace those parts, they come back to you with your part # and then you can upcharge them again.

Now you know one of the reasons why projects that use public funds cost so much.

217

Altruistic-Tower-784 t1_j57h9d4 wrote

Sure contractors cut corners, but they can’t exclude circuit breakers because they are required by the National Electrical Code (NFPA 70). Just turn off the breakers that power the lighting ballasts. So dumb…

107

JanitorKarl t1_j57tag8 wrote

My first thought as well. Where are the circuit breakers? Turn the breakers off.

21

Zorro_Returns t1_j589ef7 wrote

Have you ever tried controlling your home's electric devices from a breaker panel? Now imagine some 7,000 individual lights. 1) you don't have as much specific control, 2) it's a pain in the ass to walk over to a panel 3) how do you turn off "this" light, without turning off all the others on the circuit?

Anyway, the article states that they are doing that with some of the breakers, and removing individual lighting elements in some other fixtures.

Just because the article is dumb, read it anyway. People aren't as dumb as you wish they were :)

11

redcapmilk t1_j59mslu wrote

Remember when they had to turn the lights back on in Jurassic Park? People get hurt, People die.

3

Fuzzy_Logic_4_Life t1_j582bok wrote

I worked in a box store and that is how we turned off all of the lights at night. It’s just so much faster than walking around turning them all off individually.

20

Zorro_Returns t1_j589lqt wrote

Evidently, you can turn off a whole town with a few bullets.

7

nochinzilch t1_j586lwa wrote

They surely have breakers. But those are probably in a locked electrical room. And the maintenance people (if there are any) can't be bothered to turn them on and off every day.

10

freebirth t1_j58rd6z wrote

if they dont have manitenance people. that school woudlnt run for more then a week.

6

Zorro_Returns t1_j588zoy wrote

That's what they've been doing according to the article. Or physically removing bulbs. Yeah, it is dumb, but it's that's not going to be a feasible workaround. Having to walk down the hall and into a locked panel room to turn something on and off would get old fast. And you wouldn't be able to address specific uses, like you would with traditional switches.

4

BoldestKobold t1_j57ptdh wrote

> When you are bidding on a project, you are incentivized to come in at the lowest price possible. So, you skimp on 'features' and then try to upsell them (at twice the price) once you won the bid.

As a government employee who has had to deal with procurement before, this pisses me off so much. A vendor comes in with a suspiciously lowball bid, but the procurement people (who work for a DIFFERENT STATE AGENCY, but can veto any procurement action done by any other agency) say we have to accept it.

Meanwhile all our subject matter specialists are looking at management like we're idiots. An industry leader will bid, give us a pretty good price discount (since as a state agency we're buying in bulk for most goods and services), but we have to go with some fly by night place that everyone is pretty sure will suck and lead to cost overruns, but because they bid 10% less we are forced to accept it.

37

Tvmouth t1_j57udhp wrote

> we are forced to accept it.

and if it's a bad deal, people get paid to decide if lawyers get paid to argue about it. failure is a job's program, the fact that this is a school is a double slap in the face: how can any kid trust adults that are so blatantly corrupt and wasteful for the sake of casting blame and creating more jobs.

18

ReplyingToFuckwits t1_j57zy8i wrote

> Now you know one of the reasons why projects that use public funds cost so much.

It's also by design in most countries where major political parties are just slightly different versions of neoliberalism.

These kinds of projects are an extremely effective method for converting public funds into private profits by massively overcharging for everything.

Politicians turn a blind eye to it because the people being awarded the work are often friends and family, or people who went to the "right" school.

11

Ranger_Prick t1_j56t2ol wrote

"All right, kids, let's get the giant paper rolls and block out the lights. The darker the color, the better!"

15

[deleted] t1_j57r294 wrote

[deleted]

9

nochinzilch t1_j587llq wrote

It is likely there are very nice modules in each classroom that allow for that, as well as occupancy sensing and daylight dimming. But that all goes through a lighting controller that is apparently malfunctioning.

My alternate theory is that there is no lighting controller, and the switches just got "un paired" with the fixtures they are supposed to control, and nobody knows how to fix them.

8

nochinzilch t1_j58637c wrote

That is how all large lighting systems work. The "switches" you see on the wall are just telling the lighting controller to turn the lights on.

6

zviggy47 t1_j5ffifp wrote

I’m from that school. We have to watch movies with the lights completely on and terrible speakers from the computer. It’s literal torture.

2