Thanks to everyone that replied. Now I know I've come to the right place. ;-)
I have previously considered many of the suggestions posted. Some are more practical and doable for us, while some aren't.
For example, a whole home generator is something that interests us. However, it's a bit overkill for the number of times and length that we lose power. Most of our power losses are due to storms that pass quickly through the region, over the summer months. I don't think we've been without power for more than a couple of hours. "Knock on wood"; with the exception of the 1998 ice storm. Our biggest concern when we loose power is a wet basement. While I see the huge benefits of purchasing a whole home generator like a "Generac" generator, for now we'll probably stick to a simple battery solution. If we lived in tornado alley, I think this conversation would be much different.
For the pumps that run off of the city water supply, I believe you actually have to run the taps to get the pump action. I’m sure this method would work quite well, but it does seem kind of wasteful. Also, I think we'd have to be home to turn the taps on. It is an interesting idea from another perspective though, in that using tap water normally, we can generate power for various uses like charging batteries, assuming of course the device wasn't a pump, but a small turbine. They should invent that!
So since reading the replies, I think we've made up our minds. I think we'll go with a charger, battery and DC pump (bilge) setup. Later on we can consider a solar or wind power setup to keep those batteries going for days if need be. The bilge pump is very interesting in that it uses much less power than an inverter with a 120v pedestal. Also, a DC pump is much cheaper that an inverter with pedestal. That’s always a bonus.
That said, I do have a few questions about batteries, chargers and bilge pump brands.
For the batteries, AGM was suggested over "typical" deep cycle batteries. I guess this is because AGM style batteries don't have the hydrogen discharge? Are AGM batteries as good as "typical" deep cycle batteries? What is Group 27? If "typical" deep cycle batteries are better, I guess I'd have to keep them outside to prevent hydrogen buildup indoors.
For the charger, Lifeline was suggested. I had planned to seek reviews on Amazon for the charger. There are many multi-stage chargers that would maintain the batteries, but should I be worried about a particular charger for a particular type of deep cycle battery? Also, will a single charger be able to properly charge batteries set in parallel?
For the bilge pump, does anyone recommend a brand? If not, I thought I'd simply use Amazon reviews to help me decide. I first have to somehow calculate how many gallons per hour I need to pump. This is hard to do unless we have a half hour of hard rain.
Lastly, I'm thinking I can feed the bilge pump pipe into the normal sump pipe where it begins it's decent outside. I don't think I'd need any kind of special adapter or valve to do this. Or do I?
Thanks again for the replies.
Steve.
