A pump backup forestalls wet basement in outages

Q. Recently, I extensively remodeled my basement into a family room. We are subject to heavy spring and fall rains during which the power goes off. My basement sump pump handles the groundwater problem very well, turning itself on every few minutes.

My concern is a flooded basement during power outage. Is there a way to connect storage batteries to the sump pump so it will still operate when the power is off? Richard C. Albeins Aberdeen, Md.

A. Undoubtedly, there is a battery-operated backup power adaptation to operate your sump pump during power outages. Naturally, batteries would have to be kept charged and a mechanism provided to activate the pump when the power went off.

For specifics concerning your particular sump pump capability of such a backup system, contact the manufacturer.

A separate battery-operated sump pump might be required, but not necessarily.