Can I use a computer UPS for other appliances?

Factual Questions
1

We had a flood in our basement a couple of years ago when the power went out at the height of a day-long storm. Due to the ferocity of the storm, I had been keeping an eye on the sump in our finished basement, and started bailing when the water started getting high. Within an hour our 1600sq ft basement was under 2-3 inches of water. Then the power came on, and the sump managed to drain the bulk of the water out, but everything was soaked and we had to gut and redo the entire basement.

I don’t want to live through this again and want to put in some sort of battery backup for the existing sump pump. I’ve looked around for devices specifically for this purpose, but the solutions are $1,000-2,000 for a battery backup including power inverter, or $200 for a battery backup plus DC pump that has to be installed.

**Can I use a computer UPS to plug in the pump as a backup? **

I don’t need a backup that is going to last days, as the power hasn’t been out for any longer than a couple of hours (yet). The sump doesn’t work continuously anyway, only on for 20 seconds every 5-10 minutes (depending on the weather…it was on every 5 minutes during our recent thaw.

2

Just a guess but the starting current of the motor may be a bit much for it. I had a similar problem, ended up using a 12V bilge pump and float switch for a small boat, and a car battery as a backup system. Pump is rated at 2000 GPH and car battery would probably outlast your average UPS.

3

Not sure this will help you but I use a UPS for my TV. It helps during T-storms when the lights go off for about a second or two in my building.

4

Note that car batteries are designed for brief, high load situations. They are not optomized for long duration use. You want a “deep cycle” battery (often used in marine sitautos-for electric trolling motors)

Brian

5

For the specific application of sump-pumping, you’d be better off with a 12V pump connected to a marine “deep cycle” battery kept on a constant trickle charge. There are chargers specifically designed for indefinite maintenance of batteries - be sure to get one of these as a regular charger will boil the battery dry.

You could use a computer UPS to keep a regular pump running, but the starting current may be an issue. If anyone has the definitive answer, I’d expect it to be APC - www.apcc.com