flooded basement
- Thread starter subway53
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charlie
Senior Member
- Location
- Indianapolis
Welcome to the forum!
Pure water is an insulator. Slowly rising water in a basement does conduct electricity but is is still a fairly poor conductor. There wasn't enough current flow to trip any of the overcurrent devices. 
- Location
- Massachusetts
Water is not nearly conductive enough to trip breakers at that voltage.
It is plenty conductive enough to kill people though.
It is plenty conductive enough to kill people though.
I'd recommend:
1. Moving all the wiring to above 'normal' flood stage. If that's not possible, then he should be prepared to replace things after each inundation.
2. Install a sump pump with some sort of back-up power source. Generator, battery-powered, even domestic water powered systems are available.
3. Put a good mold-mitigation company on retainer.
1. Moving all the wiring to above 'normal' flood stage. If that's not possible, then he should be prepared to replace things after each inundation.
2. Install a sump pump with some sort of back-up power source. Generator, battery-powered, even domestic water powered systems are available.
3. Put a good mold-mitigation company on retainer.
Welcome to the forum!
Pure water is an insulator. Slowly rising water in a basement does conduct electricity but is is still a fairly poor conductor. There wasn't enough current flow to trip any of the overcurrent devices.
Highly doubt that the water on the basement floor was pure water per say. Other than that I'm with you fellers!
Was it a busted water heater actual flooding from rain or what? No drainage in said basement?
izak
Senior Member
- Location
- Springfield, MO
gfci breakers might have tripped... actually im pretty sure they would
charlie
Senior Member
- Location
- Indianapolis
Interesting. I had a house built with a basement and installed two sump pumps on different levels in the sump pit. If one failed or was overwhelmed, the other one kicked in. I never had water in the basement.
dreamsville
Senior Member
- Location
- Michigan
Interesting. I had a house built with a basement and installed two sump pumps on different levels in the sump pit. If one failed or was overwhelmed, the other one kicked in. I never had water in the basement.
That is exactly what my father(Master/Contractor) did years ago when I was a kid. Works for bad pump but not electrical outage.
76nemo
Senior Member
- Location
- Ogdensburg, NY
When they won't kick out for a genny, I usually sell out these:
"The Rule-Mate series of Automated Bilge Pumps feature a pump and a non-mercury float switch in a single, compact housing. When the float rises, the bilge pump turns on. There is no on/off cycling and therefore, no power use until the bilge pump comes on. The bilge pump remains on until the float drops and the pump senses no load against the impeller. Activates when the water level reaches 2 1/8".
Alot of folks around here are on well water, so no option for the water driven devices when the juice goes out:roll:
Pretty easy to upsell when you can get them for $50 anyday of the week, and considering they can save a basement and it's contents, they're worth their weight in gold. One day, one of them is going to fail, someone's going to take on lots of water, and someone's going to realize,... time for a genny:roll:
Ya' think???
"The Rule-Mate series of Automated Bilge Pumps feature a pump and a non-mercury float switch in a single, compact housing. When the float rises, the bilge pump turns on. There is no on/off cycling and therefore, no power use until the bilge pump comes on. The bilge pump remains on until the float drops and the pump senses no load against the impeller. Activates when the water level reaches 2 1/8".
Alot of folks around here are on well water, so no option for the water driven devices when the juice goes out:roll:
Pretty easy to upsell when you can get them for $50 anyday of the week, and considering they can save a basement and it's contents, they're worth their weight in gold. One day, one of them is going to fail, someone's going to take on lots of water, and someone's going to realize,... time for a genny:roll:
Ya' think???
When they won't kick out for a genny, I usually sell out these:
.............Ya' think???
What powers it?
Speedskater
Senior Member
- Location
- Cleveland, Ohio
- Occupation
- retired broadcast, audio and industrial R&D engineering
12 Volt auto battery @ about 2.8 Amps. Maybe $62.00, or more at your nearby boating store.
pbeasley
Senior Member
- Location
- Orange County, CA (for now)
We had a similar issue where water was getting inside the globe of a bunch of enclosed fixtures, submerging the A-lamps inside. Fixtures still worked just fine. The facilities maintenance team declared the circuit breakers to be defective because they didn't trip
When they won't kick out for a genny, I usually sell out these:
"The Rule-Mate series of Automated Bilge Pumps feature a pump and a non-mercury float switch in a single, compact housing. When the float rises, the bilge pump turns on. There is no on/off cycling and therefore, no power use until the bilge pump comes on. The bilge pump remains on until the float drops and the pump senses no load against the impeller. Activates when the water level reaches 2 1/8".
Alot of folks around here are on well water, so no option for the water driven devices when the juice goes out:roll:
Pretty easy to upsell when you can get them for $50 anyday of the week, and considering they can save a basement and it's contents, they're worth their weight in gold. One day, one of them is going to fail, someone's going to take on lots of water, and someone's going to realize,... time for a genny:roll:
Ya' think???
Haha....saw an episode of Holmes on Homes where they were putting in one of those and had buddy explaining it right after I made my earlier posts in this thread.
brian john
Senior Member
- Location
- Leesburg, VA
I have had sewage back up in an electric room, 6 feet deep with 480/277 and 208/120 lots of steam and a gawd awful smell but everything stayed on line for hours till the utility arrived to disconnect at the pole.
76nemo
Senior Member
- Location
- Ogdensburg, NY
The one I posted is rated at 560GPH at 3.35' rise at 13.6V and 480GPH at 12V
same rise. Some houses can be just fine on the RM-500 model, most need the 750. Like I said, one day someone is going to be sorry with this option knowing that some of the basements I have installed these in have valuables on the floor. 80% percent of the time the circuit card for the furnace and the blower itself is less than 18" above the floor. Last one I did, the water rose above it, and the HO called a furnace specific man. He said even though the furnace was not energized during it's soaking, there was NO way it would ever work again:roll:
Live and let learn, I'm not telling any folks you should have a genny because I need another contract and some money
I know the folks outside of the city will be the last to be served by NG unless it's life-threating. You want to take that chance, fine by me- Status