I have a finished basement and a sump pump powered from AC. Once in the 4 years I have lived in my house we lost power for 3 days. That was during a torrential down pour which is the only time the sump bucket fills up. I was at work and my wife was able to get the portable generator out of the garage and snake an extension cord thru the basement window to the sump pump just as the water level got to the top of the bucket.
This had me thinking what happens if we are away since no one is home to get the generator out and connect it to the sump pump. First it has only happened once in 4 years which does not justify the cost of a whole house generator. I looked into a battery backup system and the draw back was if I was away for a week and power was out for more than a few days the battery would die.
What I found was a water powered back up sump pump. It uses city water passing through a venturi and will pull 820gph out of the sump bucket with 40psi of City water pressure. The float on the backup is set to go on above the level the AC pump should have turned on. There are many manufacturers and the one I bought was $190. I had a plumber install it and the total was $820 including tapping into the main water pipe and running a 2nd discharge pipe since it is against code to run 2 sump pumps into one discharge pipe.
Since it is rare city water is ever turned off I have peace of mind when I am away my finished basement will never flood. Pretty cool invention! Hope this was useful info for those having the same dilemma.
This had me thinking what happens if we are away since no one is home to get the generator out and connect it to the sump pump. First it has only happened once in 4 years which does not justify the cost of a whole house generator. I looked into a battery backup system and the draw back was if I was away for a week and power was out for more than a few days the battery would die.
What I found was a water powered back up sump pump. It uses city water passing through a venturi and will pull 820gph out of the sump bucket with 40psi of City water pressure. The float on the backup is set to go on above the level the AC pump should have turned on. There are many manufacturers and the one I bought was $190. I had a plumber install it and the total was $820 including tapping into the main water pipe and running a 2nd discharge pipe since it is against code to run 2 sump pumps into one discharge pipe.
Since it is rare city water is ever turned off I have peace of mind when I am away my finished basement will never flood. Pretty cool invention! Hope this was useful info for those having the same dilemma.