Sump pumps are one of the most boring parts of home ownership. Until that one storm comes and suddenly they’re interesting.

After losing power one time this summer, I got paranoid and decided to build a battery backup. Home Depot had the basement watchdog systems, but they seemed high maintenance and I wanted something that would let me be lazier. I went with a LifePo4 battery system, that will (hopefully) get me 10 to 15 years. The battery charger has a float/storage mode so it can stay on 24/7. Doing some test runs, I think I can get about 400 cycles out of the battery before it hits 0%. I added some additional safety features (DC circuit breaker, GFCI with auto-on, Lithium fire extinguiser, etc), and added some battery powered lights and a basket of hand tools, so in the event the power goes out in the dead of night, something goes wrong, and I have to get my feet wet, everything is there ready to go.

  • snoons@lemmy.caEnglish
    73·
    3 days ago

    This board consistently has the most interesting posts on the fediverse lol. Well done. Makes me want to not rent even more ;s;

    • bigmclargehuge@lemmy.zipOPEnglish
      41·
      3 days ago

      After finishing the project, I tried to show my wife and she was like -

      “so this keeps the basement from flooding”
      “yes”
      “ok, you don’t need to bore me with the details”

      then this community popped into my head XD

            • ikidd@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
              4·
              3 days ago

              Everyone around me knows that if they have a problem with an iPhone, don’t even talk to me, I won’t touch the hateful thing.

              I’ve never seen a more disorganized UX mess than an iPhone’s Settings menu. It’s like every dev team in the company decided they needed their own top level menu item for their pointless little part of the walled garden, even if it had no relationship to a phone OS.

    • jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works
      13·
      3 days ago

      There have been projects that made me wish I still rented. Home ownership is constantly dealing with the last guys fuckups.

      But if you live in one place long enough, eventually the “last guy” is just you and if you do the job right, the volume of fuckups decreases over time. Some people like renting because they don’t want to deal with the maintenance. I like owning because it’s mine, I can do what I want with it, and I don’t have to put up with the “landlord special.”