Logged in users > User Diaries
Sump Pump Duty Cycle (my basement is wetter than yours)
12AX7:
Dear diary..
For those who haven't heard my whining about our basement, a quick recap.
Our house is about 50 feet from a small river, and our basement floor has to be very close to the height of the river when it's at it's normal level. Meaning when the river is high, our basement floor is lower than the river. This isn't a problem when the river is high but the local water table is low. This is NOT THE CASE after LONG periods of heavy rain OR.. Long periods of rain in early spring, when the ground thaws (and lots of snow melt) Our house is old, cement block walls and a poured cement (lots of cracks) floor. Sealing the floor doesn't work as the hydrostatic pressure will lift sections of the floor and break any sealant. I've investigated and it was suggested to "let it leak and pump it out"
We have one sump and one "wash pit" Of course there's one pump in the sump, and I've got TWO pedestal pumps in the wash pit.
Last spring/year was very dry and only after the heaviest of rains did 'wet spots' appear in our basement.
Several years ago our sump pump ran.. 24/7 for close to two weeks, during that time the other sump pump (primary) cycled about every few minutes.
Needless to say.. this year is looking to be another record breaker. Currently the river is up over (just) it's banks and they are talking about rain all week.
Just checked the pumps out and the Sump Pump's duty cycle is Off for 12 seconds and on for 8 seconds. There's water running 'everywhere' over our basement floor and a few spots where little geysers about 1/4indi shooting up about 3 inches.
I just installed my doc watson meter.. about 10.3amps 690watts
Time to double check our generator and get some gas.
Now.. do I have reason to whine, or is your basement wetter?
P.S. Bought the house from my mom, and knew about the water issue. It's really a special location, lots of wildlife and good trout fishing (although we don't eat fish) *L*
OperaHouse:
So who needs a basement? I can easily get a couple feet in my basement and I'm 25 feet above the river on a cliff. I've been filling in my basement over the years about 15 inches higher than the existing floor. Old concrete blocks and whatever capped with a 4x8x16 concrete block. It started out just getting me a path to the water meter, then to some other key places. After a number of years a lot of it is done. Moved the furnace out years ago. Point is you can't fight nature.
12AX7:
Well.. I need a basement. I don't expect to make it into a "man cave" nor do we keep anything of value down there, except our furnace and water heater. Our well head (sealed with cement) is also in the basement, as well as a clean out for our septic system (lets not talk about that). I'm 6`3 (and shrinking) and our basement is about 5'10 so I'm already walking stooped over.
Just checked the Watson, it's been plugged in for 6hr 10min. and has logged 2.0 KWHs so far. I should have installed it three days ago.
Was thinking of my install. The pump (submersible) has the check valve mounted at the pump, then have about 6ft of flexible hose (1 1/4 id) and it's then connected to a 1 1/4OD pipe thru the wall. Although there's about 6ft of hose, the total lift can't be more than 4 ft.
The start-up is 11.7amps and drops to about 10.3 towards the end of it's run cycle.
I think I'm wasting power by having more hose (water volume/weight) than what's really needed, or am I just picking at nits?
One of the reasons for the length of hose is to take up the torque (back lash) in the pump's start up. It's recoil is almost 1/8 turn(rotation), and hard PVC frequently would crack or the rubber right angle connector would loosen up (and that's a BAD thing!)
12AX7:
Just check the kill a watt meter..
used 8.2kwh's in one 24 hour period. I expect that value will almost double for the next 24 hours as the pump is off for about 5secs (almost running steady).
Our river is up, thinks it's as high as I have ever seen it.... forecast, more rain!
12AX7:
Okay, the Kill-a-watt meter has been on-line for 50hrs and during that time the sump pump has used 20.5kwhrs. Note that's just one pump. The secondary pump is running about 1 every 5 minutes.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version