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BoomerPants2Point0 t1_j56q88b wrote

Flipping the breakers off that are protecting the lighting circuits will turn the lights off. It doesn't matter if the control system defaults to full output, no power means no lights (except the emergency fixtures). If lighting control panels were used with relay controlled circuit breakers, flip the main breaker in the panel off or flip the upstream breaker in the distribution board off. Also, this installation wouldn't meet ASHRAE 90.1 2010 energy code (which is the code Massachusetts was using in 2012 from what I can find). Even back then, manual controls and manual override switches were required in addition to automatic off controls. The engineer of record, plan checker and/or the building inspector should of caught this prior to substantial completion and turnover. Sounds like a shit show all around.

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DragoonBoots t1_j587lrp wrote

Lighting controls technician here. Everything this person said is correct.

On top of this, one of the things I always go over when training the owners and caretakers of sites we work on (and these are videotaped and documented in operations guides) is "what to do when the lights are stuck off" and "what to do when the lights are stuck on." I'm not familiar with the system installed here, but every control system should have a way to force loads on/off when it's failed. It may not be graceful (like the folks discussing circuit breakers), but it's there.

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nochinzilch t1_j588rzo wrote

I'm sure there were switch modules in the classrooms, but when the controller software crashed, they lost their connection to the individual fixtures.

I'm not too familiar with lighting controls, but I seem to remember reading the documentation on one particular system which can be wired in a way so that if the controller disappears, the devices in each room will at least auto discover themselves and work independently. But it required a particular wiring topology, or maybe some kind of bridge device, that separated each space.

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