Reminder to make sure your Sump Pump is operating properly!
So this summer I finally setup my sump on a smart plug power meter with some monitoring. I have a rule that toggles a virtual on/off switch when it runs, which I then turned into a chart to count the activations. It is still being run by the manual float system for reliability.
I also have a water sensor slightly above the max fill level it can hit before the sump activates. This would go off and give me maybe 5-15 minutes (during HEAVY rain) to figure something out before the basement starts to get water in it!
You don't realize how many times this thing runs until you track it. With this rain storm that went from about 9PM Sunday until Monday AM my Sump has been working overtime. I cannot even imagine if this thing failed on me. This thing had to have moved at least 1000 gallons in the last two days.
Green bar is the sump. Yes that is 266 activations in less than 2 days, it is still pumping out the aftermath today.
I do something similar with mine. One other thing that I do is to measure the interval between cycles. If the time between cycles is less than the previous time, it displays "Saturation Increasing" on my dashboard. If the time is lengthening, then it says "Saturation decreasing".
Over time, we've learned how to use these sump measurements as proxy to determine how well the septic system is likely holding up without looking at its camera (everybody has a septic tank cam, don't they??).
Not sure if setting up an auxiliary pump is warranted...but for the price, I'd surely have one on the shelf with the hose to run outside. These are very reliable and inexpensive DC pumps; and I guess I never thought of how they (with power from your car battery or a spare) could Save-the-Day if you ever lost power during a storm....but they could.
P.S. - just be sure to pick the one that has the feet of head capacity to push the water from your basement level up to ground level.
Yeah I have a submersible pump I got to drain my pool faster I could toss down there in a pinch, and I would probably just run it to the floor drain temporarily. I know its against code or whatever but better than flooding.
If the power went out, during a storm like that, would be totally screwed. Should really have a deep cycle battery on a trickle charger sitting down there ready to go with a backup pump. Since my basement is unfinished and just storage its not a top priority. For a finished basement though you have a lot more to lose.
I have a walkout basement that is unfinished. There is a primary sump pump that pumps water to the sewer. I have a backup sump pump that is cross tied to the main sump. The backup pump discharges to the back yard. Thus, ideally, it will never run. Occasionally, the backup will run, usually during the spring rainy season when the ground gets saturated and water seeps into the sump.
I have the backup pump connected through a Zooz ZEN15 power switch that monitors the power used by the pump. If the pump starts, I will receive an alert that the pump is running. Normally, it will run for only a few seconds at a time. It allows me to check the primary pump to make sure it is still functioning normally.
Fortunately, with a walkout basement, I can open the back door in the event of a power failure that disables both pumps. The water level would never get more than an inch or two deep with the door open. Thus, I have not felt a need for a battery powered backup. If it were a finished English basement, I would feel differently.
Do you have a monetized YouTube channel somewhere, if I get bored I would watch that, almost as entertaining as the fire or aquarium channel we have available!!! And it will earn you money to change the cam to 4k
