Posted on 01/10/2022 6:58:15 PM PST by Mean Daddy
Our power goes out frequently. We run it 24 hours a day when the power goes out. It typically stays out for a couple days. We have been using a 5kw generator from Costco for nearly 30 years. We have natural gas for heat, hot water, and our stove so it runs the whole house with almost no compromises. We also run the generator on natural gas. We paid $400 for it. There are still 5kw generators available for around $400. I doubt that they will last as long as ours has but you do not have to spend a fortune. A sump pump would be no problem at all for a 5kw generator.
Get a DC pump with a battery backup. Set he level of the DC pump such, hat it will start to kick in when the other one fails. At the same time provide a continuous trickle charge to the backup batterie(s) Just a thought.
Ecoflow Delta
Not sure your situation, but ideally you should be trying to stop the water from getting near the basement in the first place.
I had a corn field up hill of our house and it sucked up the rain water, the water seeped into the ground and then it hit an impervious underground layer that sent an underground river straight to my house.
We got out the backhoe and dug a trench until we hit water, then laid field tile and backfilled with gravel. I ended up sending all that water around the property.
The pipe just about never stopped flowing with water coming out the end. But my sump pump did not run again except only during really heavy downpours but that was still barely.
Obviously you may have a completely different situation but if you can interrupt the water before it gets to your house, that is the best thing to do.
I have had a Generac generator for over 10 years. I just have a ranch style house and bought a small single cylinder engine generator. It uses 1/2 the propane of the next bigger unit with a twin cylinder. That’s why I bought this model.
I can run it for TWICE the length of time as a twin or spend half the money.
It does everything we need it to do. We miss nothing we care about while on the generator. (We can do without the 230 volt air conditioner and the 230 volt dryer during the outage.)
Best $3500 bucks I ever spent. Installed it myself.
I don’t even have a sump pit. Dry unfinished basement.
Battery backups result in bad batteries in 2-3 years, even with zero usage. And they are only good for a limited time. This is your only sure-fire option, if you are on city water.
https://www.watercommander.com/articles/water-powered-backup-sump-pump-ultimate-guide
My backup sump pump is water powered. It connects to the house water line. It uses about 1 gallon of water to pump 2 gallons from the crock. No backup battery to worry about with long power outages.
My home has such a system. But if you aren’t on a public water system they aren’t much help. They may not be legal in certain areas, from what I am told. (Mine was installed by the previous owner)
Your battery will have an amp-hour rating. Your 12v pump will have an amp rating (it might be milliamps, amps/1000). When you divide the amp-hours of the battery by the amps of the pump, you get the number of hours the pump will run before the battery goes dead. An old battery will have fewer hours than a new one.
You can reduce the amps required by the pump by making sure the hose outlet is as close to the ground as possible. That means don’t let the outlet dangle above the ground. Make sure the hose is long enough to touch the ground. This will reduce the actual amps required to run the pump.
If you happen to live on a hill and can place the hose outlet at an elevation below the inlet, the water will continue to siphon out even after the battery goes dead. It will not restart without the pump, though, if the siphon vacuum is ever broken when the inlet hose is no longer submerged.
You are correct, you need to be on public water systems. IT would run a well dry pretty quickly.
I was not aware that they were illegal in some areas but thinking about it, it makes sense. Mine was installed by the builders. It’s saved me several times.
Not everyone cares about this, but for those who do, these will most certainly say "Made in China".
To get a high quality pump made in the US or somewhere else in the civilized world, start at your local plumbing supply house.
This is a situation where you do get what you pay for, in my experience.
OK. Didn’t mean anything personal by my comment.
Interesting concept. Do they supplement a sump pump or replace it? Thank you for sharing.
Those are the ones you see most when you Google. Since I already have a sump pump with a float, how do they work? Do they have a float? If power goes out, do you turn it on so it will clear the pit? Thanks for any insights.
I’m thinking I want something that gives me piece of mind. When our pit filled, it took several hours so I think if I put in a two battery system, that would give me ample time if the pump isn’t running all the time. A generator with cutover is fairly expensive solution and having a portable generator does me no good if I’m not home. Thanks for the feedback.
That may have worked on our last home where I had more real estate but our new home doesn’t have the room. Thanks for taking the time to share. Freepers are the best.
Hi neighbor!! I’m across the river in Council Tucky by Iowa School for the Deaf.
I think the most straight-forward way is to replace your existing pump with the battery backup model. It keeps charged off of house current, but kicks when the power goes out. Styles vary, but most models should use a float-type mechanism just like your current unit.
By the way, I don’t know about your own yard, but when we lived in a wet part of northern Illinois on a small acreage we found that sending the pumped water farther back in the yard made a huge difference, otherwise you wind up recirculating the same water.
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