I was watching a show last night where this DOD guy walks into a huge storage facility. The overhead lights turn on and off as he walks through the place. At some point he finds his box of evidence and starts looking through it. Every few minutes hes waiving to get the lights to turn back on.

This made me laugh because as soon as he started walking through the room i knew they would have to have a scene where hes waiving to get the lights back on and sure enough it happened.

I also remember one of the pitch black movies where the crew walks into a room and says "lights" "lights on"...an attempt to figure out which voice command would turn the lights on. This reminded me of my first fight with Alexa & crestron..."Alexa open the family room shades" "Alexa turn on the family room shades" etc.

Anyone else ever notice relatable stuff like this in tv/movies?

I watched Two and a Half Men. When Ashton Kutcher took Charlie Sheens place they remodeled the house. There was a touch screen next to the front door, but I dont remember anyone ever using it. But it drove me nuts because I couldnt ever get a good enough view to see what it was. I always thought it looked like a savant panel.

On a similar note, I think it was the Adam Carolla podcast I was listening to where I heard someone say when they watched the original star trek series, they thought everything they showed on there seemed plausible in the future except the automated doors. They thought there was no way a door would ever know someone was there and it needed to open.

I'm not aware of any movies, but I have customers in a high rise where there is a freight elevator/common area on each floor that is lighted by motion control. The network feed starts here and it's a pain to work in that area. At about the time you focus on a task and have your hands full, the lights go out and you must disengage to wave at the sensor.

At work there is a men’s bathroom with 3 stalls. I walked in to pitch black and the motion detector sensed me. I then laughed at the fact that someone said “thank you for turning the lights on.” As all three stalls were taken up.

I have no idea what hat the time frame is for the lights to turn off. But they had to be in there for at least 10 minutes.

It is weird to have bathrooms lights on occupancy sensors at my work. I mean that utility is probably 0.000000000000000000000001% of their electric bill.

KOT

People are stupid. I have a restaurant as a client that has a full lighting and HVAC control. For the first 3 years the chef (who owns the business but not the building) kept calling me up to change the lighting schedule to try to cut the electric bill. I finally looked at him and explained I could turn off all the lights and it wouldnt be noticed on the electric bill. Then I found out that the landlord pays the electric bill anyway.

Had the reverse o fthis when I owned the bar in Florida.

Landlord asked could I turn off lights, and raise the AC to save him some money.

I mentioned that we opened at 8am and closed at 6:30am, so I didn't think he would really see any difference in the bill.

After all, all the coolers and freezers ran around the clock.

Today I was working in the outboards of the submarine. I rested my leg on a 400 size cable... I forget the exact wording though. But it’s a 3 conductor and it’s the largest size conductors we have. Just one conductor is slightly smaller than an US quarter.

Anyways, that cable was very warm to the touch. I can not imagine the load that was going through that. All of this was being powered by the shipyard. So that bathroom light? Yeah that isn’t even a speck on the power bill.

KOT

Gonna need to bring these back.
(if you don't remember these were suction cupped for car windows)

We do work for a ski slope. Today at lunch with a coworker the subject of the slope’s power bill came up. The coworker said “it’s probably $2000 to $3000 a month”.

For my work place? It’s probaly about that price... per hour.

I had an interview at an other factory, which is in the same town actually. Where they make aerospace parts, mostly for the jet engines. They told me that their average electric bill is about $1.5 to $2million a month. 99% is from the eletric inductors to heat up 3 to 4” diameter steel cylinders to hundreds of degrees in a matter of 15 seconds.

KOT

You've been watching Homecoming; good show.

Worked on a local mansion years ago.

The monthly numbers were astounding.

Electric bill average was $6,500.+

Property taxes were $2,000.+

Heating bill was $5,000.+

Water bill was $500.+


Maintenance on the place was probably in the 100k + range a year, so I estimated the cost for the guy and his wife was near 300k a year for their love nest....

Never heard of this show.

KOT

+1

ha, knew exactly the show OP referenced!