Home Generators & Sump pumps

barumord

barumord

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I have 2 sump pumps in my basement due to a recent extension of my home. I have considered purchasing 2 battery back up pumps and was told that the cost would be roughly $1200 per pump unit (incl installation). With the cost of $2400 for both, I am now considering to purchase a Guardian 12 circuit automatic switch home generator as that is $3100 and will power nearly my whole home. Before I do so, can anyone let me know their experiences with back up generators rather than a batery back up pump? Also, does anyone know how much it costs to run a 12 circuit (13,000 watt) generator on natural gas per hour?
 
Dont know about natural gas or lp gas either (have heard that fuel effiecency on generators is way less than gasoline) but I can say that my 6500 watt portable generator, powering my well pump, my fridge, a small freezer, a couple of lights and a small black and white tv burns about one gallon of gasoline an hour at nowhere near full load. My guess by nameplate ratings is that it runs about half load max, and even at that, only as much when the well kicks in! My opinion...I wouldnt trade it for the world!
 
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I can sell you a battery operated sump pump for somewhere around 3-4 hundred dollars. I have never seen on up close, but they don't look too tough in the picture the manufacturer put in the book. I would go for the generator. That way, you can save your food in the fridge and freezer while watching the tellie and being able to see where your going when it's dark.

bob...
 
barumord said:
I am now considering to purchase a Guardian 12 circuit automatic switch home generator as that is $3100 and will power nearly my whole home.
Click to expand...
A couple things to consider are the Installation Cost of the Guardian, and also "can it be positioned & wired to accommodate Some but not All of your circuits". In my case a Whole House genset is an all-or-none proposition in that the only place I can reasonably locate one is where it will serve the entire service e.g. 200amps. So I'm looking at $8-10K total with a changeover switch and installation.

But having said all that, to me a generator makes more sense than the special-purpose pumps which do one thing and one thing only...
 
Question. I took apart my Little Giant sump pump which had overheated to see if any dirt got stuck in the impellar. Being the ignoramous that I am, I took out 4 screws and the next thing I knew I had an oily solution all over the table,,,like a whole big puddle worth of this stuff. Did I just kill the unit? Anything I can do to bring it back to life?
 
barumord said:
I have 2 sump pumps in my basement due to a recent extension of my home. I have considered purchasing 2 battery back up pumps and was told that the cost would be roughly $1200 per pump unit (incl installation). With the cost of $2400 for both, I am now considering to purchase a Guardian 12 circuit automatic switch home generator as that is $3100 and will power nearly my whole home. Before I do so, can anyone let me know their experiences with back up generators rather than a batery back up pump? Also, does anyone know how much it costs to run a 12 circuit (13,000 watt) generator on natural gas per hour?
Click to expand...

Here is a link with fuel consumption data. http://www.homepowersystems.net/store.asp?pid=3230

The 13 kW unit uses 220 kBTU (2.2 Therm) per hour at full load, or about 0.17 Therm per kWH generated.

Using propane at $2 per gallon, it would be about $0.34 per kWH, or about 3 times the price off the grid.

You will probably be running at less than 1/3 power most of the time.
 
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