"Other duties as assigned"

[Jay Ashworth]

We got a report from an adjunct at our community college that the womens' dressing room sinks came on when someone flipped the switch for the mirror wall lights.

This got even less likely when we found out that the automatic water faucets are *battery powered*; no chance that -- as I'd originally surmised -- it had something to do with a foolish plumber tapping power off a switched circuit.

Nope; it was much more prosaic than that:

 

[Ben Stiegler]

That is truly ground-breaking, Jay! I'm actually building a new home now, and we have to stop and retrofit this into the design immediately! PS - would a 2nd bulb allow control of hot and cold separately?

 

[Jay Ashworth]

That is truly ground-breaking, Jay! I'm actually building a new home now, and we have to stop and retrofit this into the design immediately! PS - would a 2nd bulb allow control of hot and cold separately?

I don't think so; this sort of faucet usually has preset temperature mixing.

 

[CraigV]

I can't find that fixture profile in my light board patch menu. Is there a generic profile I can use instead?

 

[Jay Ashworth]

I can't find that fixture profile in my light board patch menu. Is there a generic profile I can use instead?

Any single channel DMX profile ought to work. Unless you're Ben.

 

[MNicolai]

I'd be curious if you swapped those bottom bulbs for frosted globes if that would help by reducing the specular reflections.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

I'd be curious if you swapped those bottom bulbs for frosted globes if that would help by reducing the specular reflections.

I'm trying to convince them to swap everything out with LED frosted, for btuh reasons, but I haven't made the sale yet...

This just handed to me: I won't; our dancers use those lamps for heat.

 

[Malabaristo]

I'd be curious if you swapped those bottom bulbs for frosted globes if that would help by reducing the specular reflections.

My guess would be no because it's more about the sudden change in IR than visible light. If that's true, then changing to LED would solve the problem by removing the IR component.

 

[jtweigandt]

tinfoil reflector on bottom of bulb

 

[SteveB]

Is the faucet heat activated ?

 

[ship]

Very glad not my problem to solve in not having the task. Let us know what's going on.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

Is the faucet heat activated ?

Kind of.

These automatic faucets, as near as I can tell, are "reflected IR". They beam out intermittent pulses from an IR LED, and when they get a likely looking curve in the response, they turn on the solenoid and flow premixed water. Same thing on the toilet flushers.

Early models ran off continuous power, either 120 or what is essentially a wall wart, as I understood, but battery chemistry has converged with power drain to where they're battery powered now.

 

[techieman33]

Kind of.

These automatic faucets, as near as I can tell, are "reflected IR". They beam out intermittent pulses from an IR LED, and when they get a likely looking curve in the response, they turn on the solenoid and flow premixed water. Same thing on the toilet flushers.

Early models ran off continuous power, either 120 or what is essentially a wall wart, as I understood, but battery chemistry has converged with power drain to where they're battery powered now.

Ours were retrofitted during the pandemic. The faucets and soap dispensers are able to run off of battery or wall power. The toilets are battery only though. I really wish they would have spent the money to run power under the counters for them. The soap dispensers eat 4 D cell batteries every 12-18 months, and the faucets take 4 AA batteries what looks to be around 2ish years. The toilets haven't needed them yet but they're all going to need 4 C cell batteries at some point. It's wasteful, a pain to keep up with, and the cost of the batteries adds up fast. Of course it will get worse when we find leaking batteries, or the poorly designed battery carriers fail in some other way and need to be replaced at $30-$50 each.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

Ours were retrofitted during the pandemic. The faucets and soap dispensers are able to run off of battery or wall power. The toilets are battery only though. I really wish they would have spent the money to run power under the counters for them. The soap dispensers eat 4 D cell batteries every 12-18 months, and the faucets take 4 AA batteries what looks to be around 2ish years. The toilets haven't needed them yet but they're all going to need 4 C cell batteries at some point. It's wasteful, a pain to keep up with, and the cost of the batteries adds up fast. Of course it will get worse when we find leaking batteries, or the poorly designed battery carriers fail in some other way and need to be replaced at $30-$50 each.

I've been guessing that the believe the lifetime cost of batteries that janitorial can swap in is lower than the cost to have a plumber and an electrician touch each restroom.

My college building, one of 6 on one of 5 campuses, has 8 bathrooms, with a total of 12 sinks and 17 or so toilets; the install cost is pretty high.

 

[ship]

Way way back when... in the early 1990's. . Was tracing the circuits in our store front 2nd story theater and learned that both the washerooms with GFCI were on the same circuit for lighting and power. A simple outlet tester with GFCI trip button would turn off the lights to the woman's washroom. Do believe after a while it got re-wired properly.

These problems today are much more complex. These days when I'm at work at a new venu in Chicago, it's aways a question of which washroom to use in toilet flushing or having to press and hold button a few times... or getting the water to even work, or re-work in continued working. No comment on batteries! Huge changes "cheaper" and the boss never has a problem in his home usage of them. Why are we providing batteries to employees anyway - they should provide their own batteries for gear used in the shop or on tour for our shows.

 

[JonCarter]

Sounds like more "technology for technology's sake" to me. What's wrong with good ol' flush handles & valves? No batteries or power and only needed a washer replaced every 5 years or so--maybe.

 

[almorton]

I suspect a lot of places did this sort of conversion during the early covid times when it was thought that the virus was spread by fomites (I think that's what they called them) on hard surfaces, so it was thought that contactless everything was the way to go. Now thought not to be the case.

There's still an argument for contactless lavatories and taps, as people can be slapdash with handwashing. Just not a very good argument.

 

[cbrandt]

It seems that a lot of facilities move towards these for cleanliness. Not because people are getting sick from touching surfaces, but because people just don't flush toilets. Similar ca nbe said for the faucets. If no one touches them, they don't get dirty as quickly, and the entire facility is perceived as cleaner.

 

[FMEng]

We had battery powered faucets and toilets in our building, completed in 2009. Touch less fixtures were the university standard for new construction and refurbishment. All the batteries started dying around the same time (on a bell curve), but I could never get the campus plumber to just change them all out at once. He preferred to make several trips to do one at a time, but that meant that I had to waste my time submitting a work order for each one as they inevitably died. The radio station sold and moved, so that's not my problem anymore.

 

[macsound]

I suspect a lot of places did this sort of conversion during the early covid times when it was thought that the virus was spread by fomites (I think that's what they called them) on hard surfaces, so it was thought that contactless everything was the way to go. Now thought not to be the case.

There's still an argument for contactless lavatories and taps, as people can be slapdash with handwashing. Just not a very good argument.

They probably did it during covid because they had extra money to spend in the building budget because they didn't need to do lighbulbs, carpet cleanings, and paint touchups.