Losing Grid Power.

There are a number of things to consider when you lose power. Most of the obvious I will skip. I want this to be about more technical aspects.
1:Your sump pump (if you have one)
Most of the time when a power outage happens it is also raining, which leads to a greater need to have your sump pump. Many people have finished basements that need to be protected so they opt to install a battery back up sump pump. Here is where the technical comes in. Most (or should I say many) of the battery back up sump pumps out there have very poor gallons per minute pumping ablility. But this is very important since the standard (115v) plug in sump pumps pump about 22-60 gallons per minute. On the other hand, the battery back up systems rarely come close to that.
The backup systems range from about 7 gpm (gallons per minute) at 10' of head to 36 gpm at 10' of head. This, as you can see, is a large disparity between pumps. When you also factor in that this comes at a time when the rain is falling and the power is out, this is a big problem. There is yet another problem in that most all of the battery back up systems only run for about a maximum of 8 hours on a battery charge.
This brings me to the next solution: Buy a standby generator.
I have brought on the Generac Guardian line of generators to resolve this problem and it is often a solution to many other situations at the same time. Not to mention the fact that it is extremely convienent. Guardian Generators come in many different sizes and can be easily fitted to each ones needs. The best part about using these systems is that they are completely automatic and switch from grid power to backup power without you having to do a thing. And then when the power returns they switch back. This is to me is the best of all solutions because with a guardian generator you get not just a sump pump that works but also most of the rest of the house or at least the vital systems.
I have had customers that have been on vacation and didn't know the power went out and returned to find their basement flooded. This is when you can see the benefit of an automatic system to protect your basement.

www.mcconnellphac.com