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.
I’d say a cheap charger-inverter like a Sungold or SRNE would clean this up quite a bit. You’d also not have to size a surge suppressor to withstand the inrush current since the inverter would be supplying the load. It would have a generator input on top of all that. And IDK what sort of inverter you have there, but a lot of those style are modified sinewave and not very good on motors. You’d also get a good data feed off the CI for monitoring, and a dry contact for an alarm siren if the battery hit critical.
But I like the DIY route, those purpose built backups seem ridiculously expensive to me.
The all-in-ones are nice, but expensive. I specifically went with high quality (but individually purposed) components, to save some money and also make repairs and replacements easier & cheaper.
The inverter is an AIMS pure sine wave (not modified) rated to 2000w continuous and 4000w peak. I chose it so that I could safely throw any consumer sump pump rated for a 15amp receptacle at it without worry. If you’re careful and considerate, you could downgrade to a 1500w/3000w or even 1000w/2000w inverter if you’re positive the pumps won’t exceed the limits (would work on smaller 1/3hp systems, etc).
The current setup handles my Zoeller M95 that peaks at 16.5A with ease.
Regarding monitoring, the white cables are ZWave devices, I have set up to measure current and power draw.