How exactly do you go about lighting the giant state capitol building?
A few weeks back, a post popped up on Reddit, claiming that a single person was in charge of changing every lightbulb in the state capitol building.
Intrigued by the rumor, I began to ask around to find out more. It turns out, it’s true. There is one person within the capitol whose job it is to change all of the lightbulbs throughout the building. But over the last three years, the landscape of the job has drastically changed.
Darrin Smith is the Building and Grounds Superintendent at the capitol building, and Jason Rittel is a Assistant Director of Building Management with the Department of Administration. When I spoke with them, they said the individual who changes the state capitol lightbulbs did not wish to be named. So while I may not know her name, I do know at least some of her story.
The woman started sometime in the mid-80’s, according to Smith and Rittel, and it is indeed her job to change all of the lightbulbs around the capitol grounds, as well as to attend to the clocks around the building. While this is not all she does all day, they say it does take up around 70% of her time.
At first glance, the job of changing light bulbs seems ridiculous. But when you think about the tens of thousands of lightbulbs in and around the Wisconsin Capitol building, it starts to click. Smith and Rittel estimate that, on an average day, she would change anywhere from 10 to 50 light bulbs every day.
That’s a pretty big difference, but that’s because not all light bulbs are built the same.
“There are some (light) fixtures that are so hard to get to, they require putting on a fall protection harness, clipping into rigging, and climbing out onto precarious ledges to safely be able to change those lamps. So on days like that it’s going to be a lot less because there’s a lot more involved. Then there are other days where they might be replacing lamps in the basement where they can be easily access with a 6-foot ladder. Years ago, prior to the restoration era changes, the Assembly Chamber has what’s called pearl lights at the very top, they ring the chamber. During restoration we created a system that allows them to be dropped via cable and now we change them out one at a time, now we don’t have to set up a lift that would straddle the desks. It was really a pain. So those were probably the most challenging, but we’ve gotten through now, ” Smith and Rittle says.
Starting in around 2019, the job of changing the lightbulbs changed. That’s when the capitol began their transition to LED lights.
The capitol building has been using fluorescent lights for decades, after transitioning away from the old Edison bulbs in the 1960s. The idea to move to LED lights began in 2015, which turned into a long drawn out process to figure out exactly which lights were best. But of course, it’s not as easy as just changing the lights from fluorescent lights to LED lights.
The biggest challenge comes from exactly how the lights are fixed. The current fluorescent bulbs use what is called a ballast, which helps to connect the bulb to the electrical system. These ballasts are set directly into the light fixture itself, which becomes a problem when they move to LED bulbs, which do not use the pre-installed ballasts.
This means that, at least most of the time, when they move to use new LED bulbs, an electrician must be brought in to uninstall the ballast and rewire the light fixture itself to allow for the LED bulbs to be screwed in. The electrician comes in about once a week these days to change out fixtures, and help to install the LED bulbs. This electrician is not directly a state employee, but is the sole person the capitol contracts to do the job.
If this sounds like a drawn-out, complicated process, that’s because it is. Smith and Rittel say that cost and the logistics of setting up the new bulbs is the biggest factor for the slow process. In total, they say that they’ve replaced only around 20% of the capitol’s bulbs so far.
“There’s been kind of a slow rollout. We do have some ideas for things we want to do in bulk inside and outside the building, so we’re still working through some of the bigger projects. But in general, if we have a fluorescent lamp that has lived its life or the ballast that drives it we’re replacing it at that point. We’re not ordering a lot of fluorescent lights these days, because as we’re replacing them we’re replacing them with LED,” Smith says.
Despite the slow roll out, the move to LED comes with perks, such as their long lifespan.
While exact figures are hard to determine in the capitol, due to the many different types of light bulbs they use, they say that LED bulbs can last anywhere from ten to 30 times longer than fluorescent lights.
This means that they have to spend much less time changing those bulbs, which they say saves a massive amount of labor costs.
The other big difference between bulbs is the energy saved with LED bulbs. They began replacing the bulbs in the capitol dome first, due to the fact that it would be such a large and time consuming project. It also helps them to easily get an idea of how much energy can be saved with LED lights.
“The fastest way to look at (the savings) is probably looking at the dome lights. Those were very bright and very energy intensive, so with that transition from metal halo lights to the LED fixtures, there is a 60% reduction in energy costs just by making that transition. That’s a big savings, and those are very big and very bright light fixtures compared to those lighting up offices, so we’ll see more savings when we make those transitions in office areas as well. That was part of our justification for making the transition for the LED fixtures for the dome because the payback is just under 15 years,” Rittle says.
So what does this mean for our mysterious woman in charge of the state capitol’s lighting? Don’t worry, she won’t be out of the job, because again, changing light bulbs is not all she does. But as the capitol slowly switches from fluorescent to LED bulbs, the number of lights that need replacing will drastically reduce.
Smith and Rittel say they anticipate the capitol building to be fully switched to LED lights in the next two years.
Photo courtesy: Chali Pittman / WORT Flickr
