Otakon 2015 – page 3
We can’t have been the only people in the Day’s Inn this happened to. The prevailing theory is that our room was only intended to house one bed, but had two anyway, which I guess is understandable.
But having a light switch on one side of the room that controls an OUTLET on the other side? I really can’t wrap my head around that one.
(Historical Notes: Supposedly the explanation for the weird “light switch for an outlet” thing is that there was supposed to be a lamp already plugged in and the switch was for that… except that all these lamps already come with switches actually ON them, so I still don’t see why anyone would add an extra step that also makes the outlet difficult to use for anything else.)
The thought is that the “light switch for an outlet” thing is that you have the lamps permanently set to “on” when you’re out and about, so that you can turn on any and all the lights from a central point near the entrance to the hotel room. The reason why the switch controls power to the outlet, however, is just because it’s easier, and cheaper, to wire that way. Basically, “Reasonable Idea, made Stupid through the practicalities of reality”.
I mean, an old hotel in downtown Baltimore isn’t exactly going to be setting a new standard for flawless efficiency.
True, but it might have attempted to do so back when it was a New Hotel in Downtown Baltimore. Or it might have just copied the idea from somewhere else, thinking it was a good idea. Or at least one that cuts down on electricity costs.
I don’t know about the hotel’s configuration of course, but the configuration I’ve seen is switch by the door controls outlet and lamp at the far side of the room by the bed. Switch next to the door is for turning lamp on when you enter so you don’t have to stumble through a dark and unfamiliar room for a light switch you don’t know the location of. Switch on the lamp itself is so you can turn it off from the bed when you go to sleep (as opposed to turning it off at the wall switch and stumbling through the dark room again). That’s the way my current apartment is wired and I actually find it very helpful, since despite not having moved the furniture for years, I’m still clumsy enough to trip over it every time I try to cross the room in the dark. So I’m guessing it was originally an attempt to prevent pathologically coordination-deprived guests (like me) from injuring themselves in an unfamiliar dark room.
The issue with that is if the outlet’s switch, lamp, or wall switch are turned off, the lamp is off. And people like me and Blitz are likely to turn off the lamp at night, and never turn it on in the morning, meaning that the wall switch does nothing unless you run around in circles. In which case, it stops being “helpful” and starts becoming “an annoying nuisance”
So it just depends on whether the room’s electrical designer is like me or you guys. Because 100% of the time without exception the very first thing I do in the morning (OK, the 2nd thing after turning off the alarm clock) is reach over and turn on the light next to the bed, and it would never occur to me that anyone wouldn’t do that, that’s just suicidal, I can barely keep from tripping over stuff and critically injuring myself with the lights on, much less off.