The university has decided to go green. Evidently, one significant area of waste is caused by faculty and students leaving the lights on when they leave offices and classrooms. To help those of us who are absent minded or unmotivated, the U has installed those automatic motion detectors in all rooms. For me, this has turned out to be another of those lessons in the unintended consequences of technological change.
My office – I actually did not need an automatic switch to turn my lights off. I prefer not to turn my lights on in the first place. I don’t like fluorescent lighting (another issue for another post) and use only a desk lamp and the light that comes through my window. This works great for my general reading and computer work. I think it does freak out people who come to the office to talk with me. I tend not to notice, but they may think it is kind of freaky to sit in the dark and discuss weighty issues.
Unintended consequences – the automatic light system ends up turning the lights on rather than turning them off. Now, to return to the state in which I do not waste energy I must come into my office and accept that the lights will come on. I must wait a little time for the “system” to do something (this the vague part where you talk to someone and they describe the system as calibrating or whatever that means) and then I have to return to the light switch that I used to never actually turn on and turn it off.
My lecture hall – I teach in a brand new lecture bowl with state of the art equipment. The new building is a “green” building so it has the same automatic light control system. Evidently, the architects originally positioned these controllers in the front of the hall. This makes some sense, I guess. Most of the students who populate this room would be sleeping most of the time and the instructor would be the only individual moving about. I get that part.
Unintended consequence – You go to school for a long time to become an architect. Those folks are trained to think of things that the rest of us take for granted but do not have the good sense to plan for. Except in this case. When I walk into this giant lecture hall, I enter from the back because this is the entrance off the street and the location the students use. I don’t mind entering through the door used by students – it keeps me humble.
Now, here is the problem. I am in a giant, steeply banked auditorium without any windows and I am an old guy with poor vision and unsteady legs and I must walk down these stairs in the dark to get to the front so I can move about and automatically be detected so the lights will come on. I called the dean about this one. This is dangerous for an old man. The facilities people suggested I walk around the building and come in the back of the building and the front of the room. I suggested that I would consider doing that if they would have the maintenance people actually unlock this door so that I could enter from that direction (I teach the first class in the morning and someone has to unlock those rooms).
I must report that I did make headway on this one. Sensors were installed when I entered the back door this morning.
Bathroom – I don’t want to get into the details here. You can imagine where this one is going. I am just thinking that the delay for inactivity might be set a little longer in the bathrooms.