Had a 3hr power outage last night during a horrendous thunderstorm.
The basement watchdog battery backed redundant sump pump did it's
thing!

I've had one installed for years but this is the first time it was
needed and activated, and it did the job nicely! Had it not been
there, I'd have had some carpet to replace for sure.

Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

"Todd H." wrote in message ...

Had a 3hr power outage last night during a horrendous thunderstorm.
The basement watchdog battery backed redundant sump pump did it's
thing!

I've had one installed for years but this is the first time it was
needed and activated, and it did the job nicely! Had it not been
there, I'd have had some carpet to replace for sure.

Good for you.

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.

Alternatively, some kind of manual pump (like boaters use to bail out boats)
can also save the day when the power goes out.
Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

Todd H. wrote:
Had a 3hr power outage last night during a horrendous thunderstorm.
The basement watchdog battery backed redundant sump pump did it's
thing!

I've had one installed for years but this is the first time it was
needed and activated, and it did the job nicely! Had it not been
there, I'd have had some carpet to replace for sure.

Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

Glad to hear it worked great as I also have one. Fortunately I have
never had the need for it to kick on but it sure is great insurance.

Don

According to John Gilmer :

"Todd H." wrote in message ...

Had a 3hr power outage last night during a horrendous thunderstorm.
The basement watchdog battery backed redundant sump pump did it's
thing!

I've had one installed for years but this is the first time it was
needed and activated, and it did the job nicely! Had it not been
there, I'd have had some carpet to replace for sure.

Good for you.

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.

Do you appreciate how much a UPS large enough to do that costs?
--
Chris Lewis, Una confibula non set est
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.

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.

"Chris Lewis" wrote in message
...
According to John Gilmer :

"Todd H." wrote in message
...

Had a 3hr power outage last night during a horrendous thunderstorm.
The basement watchdog battery backed redundant sump pump did it's
thing!

I've had one installed for years but this is the first time it was
needed and activated, and it did the job nicely! Had it not been
there, I'd have had some carpet to replace for sure.

Good for you.

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.

Do you appreciate how much a UPS large enough to do that costs?

Well, how much was paid for the "emergency" sump pump?

How much to replace a freezer/ice box full of food.

If you go the DYI route, the battery and the inverter/charger are each less
than $1,000.

I haven't gone that route yet. OTOH I do have a 5 kW generator.

IGot2P writes:

Todd H. wrote:
Had a 3hr power outage last night during a horrendous thunderstorm.
The basement watchdog battery backed redundant sump pump did it's
thing!
I've had one installed for years but this is the first time it was
needed and activated, and it did the job nicely! Had it not been
there, I'd have had some carpet to replace for sure.
Best Regards, --
Todd H. http://www.toddh.net/

Glad to hear it worked great as I also have one. Fortunately I have
never had the need for it to kick on but it sure is great insurance.

I just wish the one in this house was installed as correctly as I
installed the one in the house I sold. I need to fix that-- they
didn't put in a check valve, they ran a separate flex line to the
outside of the house, no hole at the bottom of the line to drain the
water to prevent air lock...

But all the same it seemed to work!

--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

"John Gilmer" writes:

"Todd H." wrote in message ...

Had a 3hr power outage last night during a horrendous thunderstorm.
The basement watchdog battery backed redundant sump pump did it's
thing!

I've had one installed for years but this is the first time it was
needed and activated, and it did the job nicely! Had it not been
there, I'd have had some carpet to replace for sure.

Good for you.

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.

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

Hi John,

I have considered a generator and transfer switch, but given the costs
and for how long the sump pump will run continuously on its battery, I
decided to forgo it. We very rarely have extended outages, and if we
do, I'm willing to self insure with a freezer/fridge full of food as
the loss amount.

The manual pump idea is a really good one. Do you have any examples
or where I might find some? It'd have to be one that I could get an 8
ft rise out of to get the water above grade and out of the house.
I'm picturing though that that may require a pedal powered contraption
heh.... Another Basement watchdog battery in parallel might be
better still. Hrmmm..


--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

"John Gilmer" writes:

Well, how much was paid for the "emergency" sump pump?

The Basement Watchdog Special that I have was about $200. I installed
one myself, and one came in the current house I'm in. It includes
battery, trickle charger, and a redundant pump.

http://www.basemen****chdog.com/sump...comparison.htm

How much to replace a freezer/ice box full of food.

If you go the DYI route, the battery and the inverter/charger are
each less than $1,000.

I'm curious now--Can you point me to an inverter/charger system that
can handle a refrigerator load? Given the reliability of our system
out here (good, underground service, short run to the
substation/t-lines, 18 yrs old).

I haven't gone that route yet. OTOH I do have a 5 kW generator.

Genset's definitely the way to go, IMO, with auto start and a transfer
switch all the better.

I've never heard an inverter/battery system every recommended to
protect a fridge before, so I'm curious who markets to that audience.

My internet connection tayed up nicely with wireless access point
firing... until the cable company's backup power failed and brought
their system down, heh. I so wanted to IM folks and say "Dang, the
entire neighborhood is out of power."

Best Regads,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

Glad to hear it worked great as I also have one. Fortunately I have
never had the need for it to kick on but it sure is great insurance.

I just wish the one in this house was installed as correctly as I
installed the one in the house I sold. I need to fix that-- they
didn't put in a check valve, they ran a separate flex line to the
outside of the house, no hole at the bottom of the line to drain the
water to prevent air lock...

But all the same it seemed to work!

--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

they can be great...

but be aware that the standard lead acid battery (car battery) will not
last much more than 5 years even if you never use it...

you should check the battery often and replace it when necessary...
and just becasue there is 12 volts comming out of it doesn't mean it
has enough Amp Hours to run your pump...

Mark

In article , "John Gilmer" wrote:


Well, how much was paid for the "emergency" sump pump?

If he has the same one I do... about two hundred bucks.

How much to replace a freezer/ice box full of food.

Irrelevant -- those will survive power outages of several hours completely
intact. Ten minutes without power to a sump pump in a finished basement could
be catastrophic.

If you go the DYI route, the battery and the inverter/charger are each less
than $1,000.

I haven't gone that route yet. OTOH I do have a 5 kW generator.

Which also cost less than a grand, I'll bet. If it's such a good idea to have
a high-capacity UPS, why don't you have one?


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

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

Glad to hear you're OK. The 15 minutes drive home from Skokie was 90
minutes. Edens Expy completely shut down. Downtown Winnetka had so much
water it was lapping at the sides of at least one building. My dad was in
Deerfield yesterday, he said the lawns were littered with soaked sofas and
carpets just pulled out of basements.

S

"Todd H." wrote in message ...

Had a 3hr power outage last night during a horrendous thunderstorm.
The basement watchdog battery backed redundant sump pump did it's
thing!

I've had one installed for years but this is the first time it was
needed and activated, and it did the job nicely! Had it not been
there, I'd have had some carpet to replace for sure.

Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

"mrsgator88" writes:

Glad to hear you're OK. The 15 minutes drive home from Skokie was 90
minutes. Edens Expy completely shut down. Downtown Winnetka had so much
water it was lapping at the sides of at least one building. My dad was in
Deerfield yesterday, he said the lawns were littered with soaked sofas and
carpets just pulled out of basements.

Whoa. Yeah that was a hell of a set of storms that rumbled through
Chicagoland. That's a nasty commute increase for sure.

Gotta give props to comed though for getting us back. Dunno what
specifically was the matter, but an entire substation went down I
think, and their attempts to reclose the circuits kicked out quite a
few times, so it seems it took some time to isolate the faults.

Folks in other places in the area weren't so lucky and may be out of
power until tomorrow even.

--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

According to Doug Miller :
In article , "John Gilmer"
wrote:

Well, how much was paid for the "emergency" sump pump?

If he has the same one I do... about two hundred bucks.

How much to replace a freezer/ice box full of food.

Irrelevant -- those will survive power outages of several hours completely
intact. Ten minutes without power to a sump pump in a finished basement could
be catastrophic.

During the great ice storm, we lost power for 30 hours. The freezer
contents were still perfectly frozen.

The battery power required to run fridge+freezer for 30 hours
is a lot more than $1000.

And if your batteries run down in a prolonged outage, how do you
recharge them? Putting them in your vehicle isn't enough - you can't
keep up with those loads.

UPS has its place in emergencies - we have several. But powering
standard fridges/freezers isn't one of them.
--
Chris Lewis, Una confibula non set est
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.

According to Todd H. :

The manual pump idea is a really good one. Do you have any examples
or where I might find some? It'd have to be one that I could get an 8
ft rise out of to get the water above grade and out of the house.
I'm picturing though that that may require a pedal powered contraption
heh.... Another Basement watchdog battery in parallel might be
better still. Hrmmm..

Lee Valley sells a manual pump (looks much like an old fashioned
lever-action well pump) that would probably work.
--
Chris Lewis, Una confibula non set est
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.

(Chris Lewis) writes:

According to Todd H. :

The manual pump idea is a really good one. Do you have any examples
or where I might find some? It'd have to be one that I could get an 8
ft rise out of to get the water above grade and out of the house.
I'm picturing though that that may require a pedal powered contraption
heh.... Another Basement watchdog battery in parallel might be
better still. Hrmmm..

Lee Valley sells a manual pump (looks much like an old fashioned
lever-action well pump) that would probably work.

Interesting. Is this what you're referring to?

http://www.leevalley.com/garden/page...2,2280&p=10380

Certainly is cost effective. Some thought would have to be put
into the requisite plumbing though. A 2nd pipe to the sump would have
to be run I suppose to avoid having to pull a submersible pump in an
emergency. I don't imagine you can draw water through an electric
submersible pump while it's still connected.

--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

According to Todd H. :
(Chris Lewis) writes:

Lee Valley sells a manual pump (looks much like an old fashioned
lever-action well pump) that would probably work.

Interesting. Is this what you're referring to?

http://www.leevalley.com/garden/page...2,2280&p=10380

Yeah, but for some reason I thought there was something useable
as a pipe fitting on the outlet. Somewhat more restrictive
where you can place it obviously ;-)

Certainly is cost effective. Some thought would have to be put
into the requisite plumbing though. A 2nd pipe to the sump would have
to be run I suppose to avoid having to pull a submersible pump in an
emergency. I don't imagine you can draw water through an electric
submersible pump while it's still connected.

Easiest would be to have a separate suction line of course.

There's no great problem sucking thru most pumps - most sumps are
impeller pumps which will simply have their impellers spin in the
water flow. However, it will be greater drag, which you don't want
with a hand pump.

They'll probably also generate a little electricity as they wind
(water? ;-) mill, which is probably not a terrifically good idea -
it would also increase drag if anything else in the house is trying
to source power from that leg of the main feed, and the pump switch
is on. Might also give you a tingle.

You'd want the sump switched off.

Nah, another suction line is better.

If that hand pump had a hose fitting on the outlet, then you
could tee it into the sump pump's outlet line. Provided you had
one way valves for both the sump and handpump.

[This is probably how I'm going to configure my battery backup system.
Essentially a truck battery, a marine bilge pump, a scavenged float
switch, and a kit-built 12V charger. It won't just do the sump -
I'll also have some smallish 12V emergency lights and an 400W inverter
running off the battery. Just enough to keep the sump, a few LV bulbs,
and the TV/laptop running ;-)]
loads.]
--
Chris Lewis, Una confibula non set est
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.