Recovering light-o-holic

I am afraid of my kitchen lights. There I said it. Flat out, darn right scared. They say the first step in recovery is admitting you have a problem and yes I have a problem with my kitchen lights.

This problem began in 1994 during construction of my home. The original occupants of this house felt the need to use top of the line, state of the art, EVERYTHING, including the finest most modern computer system that would govern the lights, temperature, security and just about everything else in the house. The theory was each room would have a motion sensor, and when an individual entered the room it would sense motion and automatically turn the lights on. Without continued movement in the room the lights would go off. This would save power, time and trouble, especially if you have pesky teenagers who have only met light switches that turn on and are truly amazed when it is revealed to them that light switches also turn off.

Well the only problem with top of the line, state of the art systems, especially if a computer is involved, is in very short order they become out dated and obsolete. Now I do have to give credit to the original occupants of this house they were smart enough to MOVE out of the house before the system began to deteriorate. The original occupants of the house sold it to the interim occupants who ended up leaving the house vacant for about 18 months before we purchased the house in 2002. Houses are not happy when left unoccupied. They want to feel the love of those who live in them. Without occupants they tend to rebel and self destruct. My house was no exception.

One of the problems we discovered shortly after purchase, was the mother board in the computer system running our house was bad, and the company who originally designed and made the system, was of course out of business. The cost to replace the system $20,000, yeah let me just write a check…. Well for the short term we had an electrician remove the heating and cooling from the computer and return it to manual so at least we could regulate the temperature in the house. We decided to live with the odd lighting. Now when I say odd lighting, in some room the motion sensors would respond and automatically turn on lights, in other rooms you would have to manually turn on lights, and some room ghosts were controlling the lights and they would go on and off regardless of instructions from the motion sensor or the manual control. It was actually kind of comical until the kitchen lights became stuck on. This occurred approximately 3 years into the marriage with our house.

The motion sensor in the kitchen never worked, and the lights in the kitchen had to be manually turned on and off, but it was still done through the computer. The manual override in the kitchen would not override the computer and the lights remained on. Now when I say lights, I mean a bank of 11 canister lights, each burning a 65 watt bulb, do the math on how much power I was sucking up. The first time this occurred the lights remained on for a period of about 5 days, then one day for no apparent reason, they went off, and there was much rejoicing in the land. This pattern of lights stuck on, and mysteriously going off continued for quite some time with no rhyme or reason to it. Last year the lights finally became permanently stuck on, as in for a period of about four months they would not go off. I was burning through power and light bulbs like you would not believe. It was time for action. Rick’s step brother Spencer, who is an electrician, looked at our system and determined we had a bad something and took a good something out of another something in our house and replaced it in the kitchen. Glory be to Spencer, the kitchen lights were finally off and the manual override switch was functioning properly. Spencer warned us this something would probably go bad too and eventually we needed to pull all our lights off of the computer system and limit ourselves to strictly manual operation of the lights. (As easy as that sounds it is VERY expensive)

Approximately three weeks ago I noticed the kitchen lights were stuck on AGAIN. I was despondent. NO not again, more frustration, more burnt out light bulbs, higher power bills, a hotter house, (you really do not realize how much heat 11, 65 watt bulbs can make), the neighbors wondering if we ever went to bed? I cursed the first occupants of this house and their need for top of the line, state of the art everything.

Well we left our house unattended for three days last week-end when Rick and I went to San Francisco, and the kids stayed with grandma. This was the first time in six years the house has been left unattended for any significant amount of time. I think the house thought we had abandoned it, and recalled its days of unattended neglect prior to our purchase in 2002. When we returned on Sunday night the first thing I noticed was the kitchen lights were OFF. I was giddy with delight!

Now the problem becomes I am too scared to turn them on for fear they will never go off again. I do have other lights in the kitchen, but nothing as powerful as my bank of 11, 65 watt bulb lights. In a way it is kind of romantic in my kitchen with the low lighting, but it does make chopping a little challenging. Every time I think about turning on the kitchen lights, I just cannot bring myself to do it, I can’t face a kitchen that never goes to sleep, it’s unnatural. It is quite possible that when I turn them on I will be able to turn them off again, however past experience has taught me that ability will be short lived at best. Therein is the endless circle of light and dark in my house. Now I have admitted my fear of my kitchen lights, I believe I am going to have to move on to recovery step two, believing that there is a power greater than ourselves that can restore us to sanity. I will be looking for a good electrician.