Have you ever been in a store when the power went out?

I was in a supermarket days ago when the power went out. Their generator came on and turned back on some of the lights.

I was in the Menard’s near me once when the power cut out. It was dark for several seconds until about 1 of every 6 lights came back on. They have a large Generac Diesel generator in the parking lot and it was running when I left, obviously being what was powering the building.

I remember a long time ago being in a store called “Home Headquarters” (I’m sure most people have never heard of it) during a thunderstorm . The storm caused power to go out to the whole neighborhood the store was in. Everybody just kept on shopping in the dark.

Years and years ago - ok, so we are talking early 90’s - when I was in high school, one day for no reason the power went out. The school was built back in 1970 and pretty much had the original electrical, fire alarm, and intercom systems as they were installed 20 years prior. The school was also windowless except for two hallways that ran the exterior of the building. I knew they had a generator but never knew exactly how much of the school it powered. Apparently, it kicked on one light in each classroom (the one right by the door), about every 5th light in the hallway, the exit signs, and some dedicated recessed lights in the cafeteria and auditorium. Not much to do anything by but keep from running into things in the dark. And it ran the old Executone intercom system, because they made an announcement right after it happened to stay put. I would imagine it also ran the fire alarm, boilers, and probably coolers in the cafeteria. For a kid starting out in electrical and electronics I was amazed!

I remember once during a final exam in high school, the power went out for about half an hour. The weird thing about our emergency lighting system was that it lit up sections of the schools every 5-10 minutes or so.

Power never goes out at my school. Like ever. We have a generator. Most things need to stay up since my school is a red cross shelter during natural disaters. The lights stay on. So does the HVAC. The fire alarm system has batteries but not really needed. The internet stays up unless it’s out. There are plans to switch over to cellular so we won’t have that issue. We also have solar panels too. We can (Usually go on with our day even if the powers out for a few hours. I think the generator is hooked up to natural gas with a 48 hour backup tank. This is how I would design a school. :smiley:

I was at a fitness center, and was looking out the window, with a view of a telephone pole. It was thunderstorming, and I watched as the telephone pole got struck by lightning, right outside the window! Then the power went out and the emergency lights kicked on. I just thought it was cool to see the lightning that caused it. :stuck_out_tongue:

My high school is about 1/2 powered by methane from a nearby former dump so all of the power won’t go out at once. 2 years ago something failed on the ComEd feed so only the parts powered by the on-site power plant remained lit.

Here’s a 2003 document on the installation of the methane power supply if you are interested: http://www.midwestchptap.org/profiles/ProjectProfiles/AntiochHighSchool.pdf

Windowless classrooms? What was that like?

Horrible. It was like going to school in a bomb shelter. The building was air conditioned (which was rare for a school in the area at the time), but again, 1970’s technology so it never worked right. One room would be 65 degrees and the one across the hall would be 85 degrees. They renovated the building a couple of years about and heard it’s a little better but I haven’t been in it.

Normally 24 hours of battery backup + 5 minutes of alarm is required for a fire alarm panel (15 minutes of alarm if it’s a voice or mass notification system). With a generator, batteries are still required, but it gets dropped to 4 hours of battery backup instead of 24.

I normally see diesel generators, and there’s usually a contract to have the fuel tanks refilled within 4 hours. So when the gensets kick on, refuel trucks are already pretty much on standby to make sure they never go down.

I went to an almost windowless high school. Maybe 5 classrooms total had windows, and I never had any of those classes… Most people called it the prison, mainly because it looked like one from the outside.

Years and years later a fire alarm renovation project landed on my desk for that school. Was kind of neat to work on something from my past like that. :smiley: It was built in the early 90’s so we pretty much had to completely redo the NAC’s to get proper coverage. I was surprised looking over the existing drawings and seeing things like 1 horn/strobe in the middle of a 75 foot corridor serving an entire wing. :roll:

When I was in high school, there was a toxic chemical explosion at a nearby industrial park that knocked out power for the whole block. We had no air conditioning, so all the windows in the school were open and we started to smell the fumes. The generator powered a few lights in each hallway and the intercom system, which they used to instruct everyone to close all windows and go into lockdown. Luckily, the fumes weren’t strong enough to cause any health problems, and we all got to go home early anyway.

I was also in school when Hurricane Ivan hit, and the building went totally dark. They marched us to about three different makeshift shelter spots in the building before realizing that the windows weren’t safe, so they put us in a pitch black gymnasium until we could be sent home.

In Florida we know days before a hurricane will hit. We stock up on things and schools close. Well except though 4 around the county that are outfitted as Red Cross shelters, those are usually set up within a day. Some of my classrooms are converted to kinda a hotel for people loosing their homes. Our cafeteria is converted to a cafe. They serve stuff for weeks after the initial storm hit. I remember my mom telling me in 2004, Chick Fil A actually went to my current school and served meals for free. ( I believe the Red Cross paid for it.) The HVAC was still working so it was comfortable. There is these black screens around just about every window to the school, I was told by the janitors that a 2x4 can hit it at like 250 miles an hour and it doesn’t do anything to the window. The screen might be a tiny bit damaged but it will have to be replaced sooner or later. The 2x4 just shatters into pieces

Once visited a Sears store after the power had already gone out. They were still able to stay open as their point of sale equipment was on backup power. Half the store was still lit by the ceiling fixtures. A few of the departments had to shut down until power came back though. Electronics, eyeglasses, photo studio, and car service.

At the supermarket, right after they charged my credit cad the power went out… Lucky me :slight_smile: