Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianG
PBO: When I was having flooding, I was thinking about getting a 12v sump pump in case power is lost, but then thought that it most likely uses motor brushes, and probably won't last a whole long time. AC pumps are way more reliable (reliability is a big concern in this instance), so I thought about using a regular AC unit powered by an inverter. The AC pump would be powered via the inverter/battery directly, with AC mains (when present) running the pump and charging the battery. The charger would need to auto-select between high current "run mode" and float charge. Of course, a couple of large marine batteries in parallel would be needed for any kind of decent runtime, but better than nothing. A 1/2HP (560w) sump would pull around 50A @ 12v from the battery (factoring in some efficiency losses of the inverter), depending on vertical and distance pump load. Two marine 100Ah batteries would be able to last over 4 hours, more if the pump is actually pulling less current.
|
The bilge pumps typically fail after 24+hrs of continuous running & they don't transfer water 'uphill' especially well either
We use 2-pole induction motor, single phase pumps (0.50KW - I think) to empty collection pits & general pumping in our boatyards. These things are great & have run continuosly for weeks on end keeping boats afloat. They have a 50mm (2") discharge & move a lot of water (& slurry from our collection pits)...power is of course constant during this process
I imagine there aren't enough swear words available when the power goes during a flood though, that must truly suck!