This board consistently has the most interesting posts on the fediverse lol. Well done. Makes me want to not rent even more ;s;
this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2026
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Dull Men's Club
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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
She probably doesn't even know which distro you maintain on her laptop.
No laptop....she only has a phone
At least it's android... right?
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.
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We're all standard nerds down here..,
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."
I see the fire extinguisher is mounted in a convenient location should the board catch on fire. Easy to reach, you know, around all the flames.
There’s a second one 10 ft away.
Your concern of fire with the smoke detector and fire extinguisher, is something I strive for with my hobbies. Well done!
Since it's on the basement, make sure it's not "made in Briton"
Nothing against the British, it's an it crowd reference
I'm going to put it there, together with the rest of the fire
To whom it may concern:
FIRE, FIRE, FIRE!!!
Yours truly Moss
Remember to place the monitor just so
at a sea parks?
“They died in a fire? In a sump pump pit?”
Are the seals alright?
Not the scene I was referring to be still applicable
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Jesus, you know they make 120 v sumps with a 12v backup right? :)
Indeed they do. But I'm lazy. I'll explain:
The systems with the 12v backups only activate said backup when the main pump fails, typically due to a power outage. So if you live in an area with consistent power, the backup will hardly ever activate. Over time the backup atrophies due to never cycling and then when your main does fail, the backup is also dead too. Then you're fucked.
To fix this, they recommend going down and unplugging your main, and running a hose or something to your pit to test the backup every 12 months or so, making sure it works. But who wants to do that.
With my system, I have a pump alternator (silver box, bottom left in pic). So I have two primary pumps, and it flips between 'em. So each pump runs half as often as normal. If one pump fails, the alternator flips to the other one and triggers an alert. This alert emails me saying "yo something is fucked up with the pump", and from there I have to diagnose and fix it. But it's asynchronous and I don't have to worry about it until I get that email. Only thing I really need to check on an annual basis is the battery health, which is bluetooth'd to my phone.
Honestly very cool setup. I'd love something like this if I get a house that needs a sump.
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If you're on city water that doesn't lose pressure during power outages they also make water powered sump pumps.
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Nice try. I know a flux capictor when I see one.
When I was a kid, our sump pump was like the #1 thing that would get fried in a thunderstorm. Our power would go out every fucking time it rained. We'd sit there in the dark watching the outlets arc.
Yup, it's hard to see in the photo, but at the wall power I put a Southwire #41008.
It has a high joule rating, but the nice thing is that if a surge occurs and it fries the 41008, it cuts off power (i.e. system goes to battery) and it sounds an alarm like a smoke detector. So then you go down and either replace it or remove it to get wall power again.
I do know that surge protection in front of a pump is a highly debated topic among electricians, so YMMV
Idk shit about fuck about electricity, but that sounds good I guess?
It's a tradeoff. You can "raw dog" the wall outlet, and hope that a surge doesn't fry your shit.
I have a little widget that absorbs electricity and basically kills itself and sounds an alarm if there's a significant surge in a thunderstorm. The tradeoff is that I have to resolve the situation by either swapping in a new, unkilled widget or remove the dead one and plug everything directly into the wall, before the battery back up runs out of power.
Am I not understanding something, why not just a UPS?
A UPS with that capacity would likely be 5-10x the cost of what OP built.
Thanks for chiming in because yes - the answer is "money".
Parting out the system as individual components saved me a ton of it. In addition, it will be easy to identify and replace problematic components if and when they fail (for a fraction of replacing a UPS that meets the power requirements).
How much did this cost you? Just trying to compare a my Ecoflow which I use for a network UPS. It's got a capacity to run steady for an hour or two I think.
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I have that same victron smart charger.
Nicely done, tho less than a dull result for a dull home component
Ty friend, I will strive to be more dull <3
LiFePo4 batteries are awesome. Much less (but not zero) fire potential than standard lithium, many more cycles than lead acid, and can drain to zero without not getting damaged like lead acid and standard lithium batteries. I'm pretty sure they're better with low temperatures as well.
The primary con is their weight and size for how much energy they can deliver.
I'm sure you know all of this already, I just love batteries. I use LiFePo4 batteries in my UPS for my homelab because I got tired of having to replace the lead acid ones every couple of years.
Edit: is your fire extinguisher of F-500 type? An ABC extinguisher would also work in most cases since this is LiFePo4, but F-500 (or AVD) is the best way to put out metal fires, if you're paranoid about it. Most likely though, if your battery has a thermal event, it'll just off gas some nasty vapor for a bit since this battery chemistry doesn't self-oxidize and cause a cascade of failures. As long as there's not something sparking to ignite that vapor, you're probably good.
Having used LA batteries for years on watering and fencing, the day I discovered LFP batteries was a glorious day.
They last forever, they discharge down to nothing with no damage, you don't get corrosion on the terminals. You can't boil them, you don't need to check water level, they weigh half as much for the capacity.
Even though initially expensive, I calculated they're about a quarter of the cost over the long term than LA because of the cycle count and amount I need for the extended capacity. I get about 30-40% of a LA battery's capacity without doing lasting harm to it, with LFP I can abuse that thing all the way down until it's completely exhausted and it charges right back up again.
Only thing I have to watch is charging them below freezing, so I have to run them in an insulated and heated box in the winter.
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And LAMINATED DOCUMENTATION!! Love the setup!!
Yessir, 'cause you know when I need to actually work on this thing...it'll be in the middle of a storm, when the power is out, and the water is rising in the pit, and I'll be stressed outta my gourd. So I'll need battery powered lights, and tools sitting right there, and instructions on how to connect and disconnect everything, so I don't actually have to think under pressure :D
I missed that, thanks for pointing it out.
I'll have to get my dad to do this at his place. He's on a well, water softener, and fancy septic tank, as well as sump and sewer being pumped up from basement level to ground level for removal.
The system looks impressive, but if he's not around in an emergency I would not know what pipe or valve does what.
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We got flooded a bunch of times when the power got knocked out, because the town allowed development onto old swamp land that became a flood plain when the lake level was high and heavy rains came.
My dad installed a water based pump, it had a turbo type spool. City water pressure coming in on one side spun the pump shaft to pump out the sump. You are dumping city water into the sump too, but at a small volume x high pressure vs pumping out at low pressure x high volume.
So all was fine, just had to hope the town didn't lose water pressure at same time as power outage.
Or ya know, a siphon jet back up. Maybe not an option if you are on a well pump. But a much cleaner fix for power failure AND main pump failure. Its a good thing you can maintain the pumps yourself because ain't nobody gonna touch that.
I mentioned in another comment but I have two pumps and an alternator that swaps between them, so I'm not overtly concerned with pump failure, more-so power failure.
The siphon's are dope but yes wasn't an option. I was a professional plumber in a previous life, so yea, I'll be maintain this thing lol.
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You are a professional MacGyver.
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