How Many Watts for a Home Depot?

[Ben]

How many watts do you need for your generator to run Home Depot?  

I just got back from HD, and there was a power outage in that part of town. HD was still open and it got me to wondering how big of a generator you need to run a Home Depot. I actually asked the checkout guy how big their genny was, but he didn't know.

From what I could tell, they were running 25% of the lighting, three registers (including one credit card register luckily, since my purchase was more than my wallet cash), and I'm not sure if they were running any ventilation. It was 95 outside when I got there, but the store was warm but comfortable. The outage might have just happened though, so maybe the store didn't have time to become an oven.

I overheard a manager talking about all printers being off, but certain computers still being on. I have no idea how much power the "back end" employee area of an HD takes. Anyway, it got me to thinking about how big of a generator they need. If it's only for the lights and registers, I'm thinking not that big. I'm sure they run LED lights, and  I doubt a register needs more than 500 or so watts to run. Depending on back end operations though, I'm sure that can go up fast.

Anyway, what do you guys think?

[just Warren]

6.5? But then I don't know anything about plumbing.

[Brad Johnson]

Lights (presuming LED or fluorescent) and a core computer thingamastuffs won't really take all that much power. Figure in a little overhead for vampire loads and you could probably get by easily with a 15kW generator. The big expense will be a UPS with enough grunt to keep core services running long enough for the generator to start up and stabilize.

Our local store has a big Cat 25kW unit out back.

Brad

[just Warren]

A little OT:

In my county you need a permit to run a fixed-site (i.e. not ones in RVs) generator.

Is that usual?

[RoadKingLarry]

What kind of commie jurisdiction do you live in?

[Hawkmoon]

A little OT:

In my county you need a permit to run a fixed-site (i.e. not ones in RVs) generator.

Is that usual?

Never heard of it.

But -- if it's a permanently installed emergency generator, the wiring and connections are covered by the building code, which probably incorporates the National Electric Code, and therefore a permit is required in order to get it into the system to ensure that it's inspected for correct wiring. The permit is for doing electrical wiring, not to run a generator.

[just Warren]

Here's the checklist for a permanent installation. Which would support Hawk's point

The way I heard it explained, and this was years ago, was that even if you had one of those little Hondas or Husqvarnas hooked up to power something, even on a temporary basis, you needed a permit.

[Brad Johnson]

Permit, at least around here, is for installation of the generator port into existing house wiring. After that you can gen your little pea-pickin' heart out.

Brad

[castle key]

I guess mine could run a HD!

I like the idea of being able to have every light in my house on, a few tv's, the kitchen, the A/C rolling, and the pool pump going!

I'm spoiled like crazy.

My new house has a 32 kw that has only run a few times.... Once, a bad storm kicked it on for a few minutes, a squirrel committed suicide on the power pole and that got about an hour or so, and then there is the weekly test run.

My old house, without a generator, and in a heavily urbanized area lost power all of the time. I hated it.

[230RN]

I thought most of the permitting, apart from wiring, per se, was to assure that the genset was well and truly disconnected from the feeder lines when the generator was running.  That's what I thunk, but I've been wrong before.

Keeps linemen trying to repair the break (or whatever) from getting electrocuted or having to go around looking for whomever is energizing the lines and "hot" lines from on your side of the break from lying around in the street and children and stray puppies would be safe.

That's what I thunk.

[Boomhauer]

Big ones, probably. We install them and service them but I am not in the EPG division.

[MechAg94]

My bet is they just had a UPS, but a generator makes sense.  Probably only a few people knew what plugs were wired through the UPS and what systems were supposed to remain online.  

[K Frame]

HDs around here run HID lights for their main lighting.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[TechMan]

I can ask my EEs at work tomorrow.  We spec them all the time and we’ve done some work for the Home Despot.

[charby]

https://www.cat.com/en_US/products/new/power-systems/electric-power-generation.html

[p12]

https://www.cat.com/en_US/products/new/power-systems/electric-power-generation/diesel-generator-sets/2750425786975974.html

Holy crap. That’s a big ass generator. 30.5 feet long.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jamisjockey]

A permit to add a generator to your house, or rewire your house to accept one, doesn't surprise me. 

[RocketMan]

HD ain't got nuthin' on us.  We've got a 750KW genset in the front parking lot of the DC just to maintain critical systems like the data center, radios, systems automation and emergency lighting.
We have a pair of two megawatt gensets in the back truck lot that can power our building and a good part of the local area should there be an extended outage.

[Nick1911]

I work in an office building.  We have a rather serious Caterpiller turbodiesel setup to maintin life and safety systems for our building.

I suspect a Homdepot requires more backup power then you might imagine.

[230RN]

I remember them setting up a huge "Dummy Load" testing trailer with carbon pile (I assume) loads in the street for the building next to us in downtown Denver.

Apparently periodic testing of emergency power is required (or just good practice) in Denver because every once in a while the government building* across the street from us would start belching diesel smoke out of its almost street-level stacks.

Terry

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron_White_United_States_Courthouse

[Boomhauer]

Yes it’s called Load Banking. Standby generators are usually set to run for a brief time monthly but that doesn’t really put a load on them. Diesels without a load can experience what is called wet-stacking where unburied fuel passes into the exhaust system and goops up. Gensets are notorious for it because they don’t come up to operating temp for a long time on their normal test runs

Load testing tests the generator system and gives the engine a real workout. It may be part of normal preventative maintenance or part of troubleshooting.