The state is always looking at ways to save money, particularly on their building operating costs. A number of years ago, they installed a system which would automatically shut off the building lights at night and on weekends. So, every week night, the lights go off at 6PM and come back on at 6AM. And on Friday night, the lights go off at 6PM and return on Monday at 6AM. So, if you need lights during the off hours, you have to call Central Control and they will turn on the lights for your particular area.

All and all, the system works well, but there is always room for improvement. And the area for improvement was in the bathrooms.

Since the bathrooms lights are operated by a light switch, they are not on the central lighting grid and therefore have to be manually shut off when not in use. And, since there is usually someone in the bathroom at any given time during the day, the bathroom lights are left on all of the time. This is where high tech comes into play.

Using some money, presumably from the Homeland Security funds, the state has replaced all of the manual light switches with motion detecting light switches. The idea being that when it detects motion, it will turn on the lights. And conversely, if it doesn’t detect any motion after a certain period of time, it will shut off the lights. Seems simple enough, but wait, there is always a catch.

The catch is in the placement of the motion detectors. The bathrooms have two sets of doors, an outer door and an inner door. Unfortunately, the light switch is located just inside the outer door so that as you open the outer door to go in, you reach in to turn on the lights. And, since these motion detectors replace the light switches, that is where the motion detectors are located.

Now, because of their location, the only motion that they really detect are people entering and exiting the bathrooms. And this is fine as long as there are people going in and out of the bathroom. But, if someone is in the bathroom, their motion is not detected because the motion detector can not detect motion beyond the inner bathroom door. So, if you are in the bathroom for any length of time and no one else is in there with you, the lights may go off. And if the lights go off, it is really dark since there are no windows. And this was the case the other day.

As I entered the bathroom late one afternoon, I noted that the lights were off. And of course, as I entered the bathroom, the motion detectors captured my movement and turned on the lights. From a stall at the far end of the bathroom came a “thank you.”

The moral of the story is to be sure to get enough fiber in you diet or you will end up in the dark.