Lisab, as I understand them, water pressure back-ups don't just utilize pressure, they use lots city water to pull the sump water out by Venturi effect. This effectively mixes the clean and dirty water and leaves to copious amounts of water pouring out, which eventually goes to a storm sewer (of course, it is even worse they dump it right into a sanitary sewer). If it is a very active sump like Rusty's it would take a remarkable amount of city water to pump the sump water up 8 feet, if it could even do it. Doesn't that all that extra water contribute to straining the storm sewers, probably at the worst possible time (when it is already very wet/raining)? If many people use these and storm sewers are overwhelmed, won't flooding be that much worse? And, if enough people use them, won't the water supply be burdened? While the individual paying the water bill should care, I think the municipality should care, too. Rusty, is there any place downhill from your basement where you could drain your sump by gravity to daylight? It seems unlikely with the waterflow you describe, but, it would be the best solution by far if it were possible.

Carol, hopefully others will come along with their ideas so you can pick the best of the bunch that suits your style. I am like Randy and use Acronis True Image, mine is version 7, for my backups. You would need something similar for the initial backup. I got mine when Acronis made it a free offer for a while. The idea was to get us to use it then buy the upgrade, a nice ploy too but I have stayed with version 7 so far. Regarding the timed backups of your personal data you might consider creating one folder for your work with sub folders for each program you use rather than allow each to store their work where they want it. Then it is a simple matter of copying that folder with all it's sub folders to the external drive any old time your heart desires. Using the method I have described you will overwrite the previously saved data folder. You will be prompted to agree to overwrite so you then have a choice of renaming the folder if you want more than one copy of your saved work.

Here's an off the wall solution. A friend of mine lived in an area where there were almost no power outages, even in bad storms. They've experienced maybe 4 outages in 25 years. However, if there was an outage, it might last only 30 minutes at most. In that 30 minutes, their sump would fill up and water would start flowing into the basement. The expense of a full fledged back up system wasn't that justifiable. He kept a oil drum crank handy just in case but wanted something less labor intensive. He was more concerned about the few times a hurricane might come through and, just something as an alternate course of action. We picked up a Xantex 2000 watt inverter with a 4000 watt surge capability, a marine battery and a small solar panel to keep the battery float charged. During one heavy torrential down pour, we put it to the test. We unplugged it from the power and plugged it into the inverter. It worked great for over an hour (when the rain stopped.) Just knowing he had an alternative was good enough for him. With a little more work with a relay, we could have made the system automatically switch over. The good part is, when the battery starts to run down due to long use, you just hook up jumper cables to a car or tractor and you're back in business. We also tested it on his pellet stove and it worked great. Of course this is an "un-packaged" UPS. The cost was around 175 bucks total. He has an area where he uses a hedge trimmer and needs 150 foot extension cord to get to it. He took the setup out to the location and used his hedge trimmer with it and needless to say, it worked great. I personally think running the extension cord would have been easier but I mention all the other uses as another example of the setups' capabilities where it can be applied to other emergency or short term uses as well.

I hope you guys are still checking this thread, I discovered today that the three bedrooms built over the garage are not connected to the geothermal system. At least that's what I think. Help me out here, please. I'll start at the beginning. When I first toured the house it was very nice and toasty, verging on too warm, until I got to the door that opens into the wing built over the garage that consists of three bedrooms. It wasn't just noticeably cooler, it was very cold. The realtor said the owner kept that part of the house closed off and didn't need to heat it since there was no plumbing in that wing. Sounded good to me. Fsq4cw asked me a question earlier about the pond and the furnace and I had to look at the sellers disclosure to answer his question, and as I'm looking for what's stated for the pond I see right underneath the description of the geothermal system, it says "2 window ac units, 3 bedrooms over garage electric heat in ceiling". Nowhere does it clearly state the bedrooms are not connected to the system, but why else would those three rooms need both air conditioners and seperate heaters? I've seen the electric bills for the past few years on this house, they are very low. I assumed mine would probably double as I have children and she is a single woman. But her electric bills don't include heating and cooling those three rooms, so the heating and cooling of those three rooms cancels out the savings of the geothermal system, doesn't it? Tell me I'm wrong, please. And what in the world is electric ceiling heat anyway? Is there a reason it's not and/or can't be connected to the heat pump? I know you're going to want specifics on the ac and heating units in those rooms, which I don't have yet. I'll post when I do, but in case you need to know, the house was built in 1972, the geothermal installed in 1998, and the garage was built in 2003. The garage is 35x26 and connects to the main level of the house through a 16x6 covered breezeway, the bedrooms are built over the garage an breezeway and connect directly to an exterior wall. You can see in the picture the lower roofline is the garage with windows from two of the bedrooms. I sure hope I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, and I hope too there's a way to connect those rooms to the heat pump. I really appreciate you guys taking the time to answer my stupid questions and your patience in educating me about all of this.