In article , "John Gilmer" wrote:

Maybe you should consider a large scale UPS to pick up truly essential loads
for your house like the sump pump, the freezer, and the ice box.

Nonsense. Do you have *any* idea what that would cost?

Do you have *any* idea how completely unnecessary that would be?

A refrigerator and freezer will be just fine for four hours or more without
power, as long as they're kept closed -- and that's usually plenty of time
for the power company to restore power. But considering that power outages are
most frequently associated with rainstorms, even ten or fifteen minutes
without power to a sump pump can result in significant damage in a finished
basement, damage *far* in excess of the value of any freezer or its contents.
IOW -- it's much more important to have backup power for the sump pump than
for the refrigerator and freezer. And that's what the Basement Watchdog is:
essentially a UPS for the sump pump. A generator is fine for the frige and
freezer. In most cases, so is just leaving them alone.

Alternatively, some kind of manual pump (like boaters use to bail out boats)
can also save the day when the power goes out.

What if the power goes out while you're asleep? Or away? The battery backup
for the sump pump will still work... but not a manual pump.


--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.