The Lamp Room

OK so at one of the schools they are ripping out the emergency lighting system that I have looked after for 15 years and have decided to replace it all with a chinki system monitored by a centeral computer and begging to go wrong. Complete shite check this out!

https://www.hochikieurope.com/category/ ... y-lighting

Yes, I've seen these before.

Tridonic Atco offer a similar system where the luminaires are powered by cat.5 network cabling and an powered ethernet switch, see below. I've seen these at the national low carbon event for councils, and wasn't particularly impressed.

https://www.tridonic.com/com/en/product ... system.asp

Hope you're blood isn't boiling Kev.

As discussed on the phone last night, a system like this is all well and good all the time it's working properly, but the second it goes wrong, you're tied to that manufacturer for spares. Assuming now that they go bust (which with a shitty Chinese system like that, wouldn't surprise me at all) what do you replace the failed parts with? You can guarantee that no-one else's fittings or parts are compatible and as this is not wired as a standard mains system, you can't just go out and buy standard bulkhead fittings to replace the failed ones with as this system relies on extra low voltage cabling and there's no mains present at the fitting location.

Now add in the software required to run this - do you have to subscribe? How much is it and how hard is it to actually use? Isn't it just cheaper to send the caretaker round once a month with a fish key and log book? Why over-complicate something like this? Add all the additional cables required and the interfaces and you're never going to save anything.

Just NO!

This all sounds like the `state of the art` Andrews heating systems, like ours at work, installed BY them, with THEIR central IT system, including fault codes, (that you have to get from them daily), THEIR operating manual, (that just tells you the `basics`), and then the `maintenance costs`, that they drop in after you have owned the system for 2 years.

The first time it went wrong, they told our general manager, "oh, yes, you have to have our system looked after every x-amount of months for £240 a time", when they were fucked off, they immediately changed all the codes stopping us from fixing it!
But as it happened, it was just a `zone control station` that needed re-setting!

Andrew now won`t deal with us at all, after refusing all the add on costs, and as the warranty is now long gone, they have basically washed their hands of their own install!

That is to be expected with all "smart" systems out there. Anyone that pushes for a future full of "smart" technology, as long as it is not completely end-user owned and controlled, is pushing for a very dark age. Computers can be trusted only when you are the sysadmin

In this case, i see one more problem : What if there is a power failure, but the ethernet switch supplying the units keeps working from its individual UPS, so they don't see a power outage and don't light up ?