I have been considering the building’s general attitude over the last few years. One of the more interesting things it does is playing with the lights. Now for several years turning the lights on and off followed what most of us learned as small children. Find the switch, up in on, down is off. Except when there are multiple switches to operate a light – then the up/down thing is rather unpredictable. The building also has energy efficient lights that turn off if movement is not detected for a number of minutes. And we have some “switchkeeper” software that can be programmed to turn certain lights on and off on a timer. Apparently the switchkeeper does more than just this, which we use for parking lot lights. Hidden power.
Now back to the last few years and the lights. There are two floors in the building, and each main area has a bank of light switches. Most people would assume that each bank would operate the lights in relatively near proximity. That is exactly how it worked for several years. But more recently the north first floor switch bank has been able to turn lights on the second floor on and off. The second floor folks can still use their switches to change decisions made donwstairs, but they do not get to do anything that changes the first floor lights.
Since most people work the same hours, give or take 30 minutes, it was not really noticed. But when the first floor folks put up their Christmas tree and added lights, they decided to turn off the lights and see how it looked. Of course the second floor was plunged into darkness, at least momentarily. This was repeated several times, until it was communicated that they should remember their actions did affect more than just the first floor area. The more usual impact is when certain folks are upstairs working with a smattering of lights turned on in the morning, and suddenly all of the lights turn on, making it brighter than some want at that time of the AM.
Now this was not always the case, and none of us can really figure out what changed (we all squint at the electrician though). The building is, after all, only 12 years old.
Then it struck me – it’s entering the teen years. The next 7 years should be a fun ride.
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