# Energy Star Dehumidifiers



## Wet1 (Sep 1, 2009)

I woke up this morning smelling mildew from the basement and it needs to stop ASAP.  I know I have some drainage issues around the perimeter of the house which I'm addressing, and I'd like to insulate the floor down there this winter, but for now I need to kill the musty mildew smell.  

I obviously need a dehumidifier.  I have an old dinosaur that partly works, but it's not overly effective and I can watch the meter spinning like there's no tomorrow while it's running.  I like to buy high efficiency products whenever possible, so I think I want an Energy Star unit to replace the POS dinosaur.  Does anyone have any recommendations for reasonably priced energy efficient dehumidifiers?  Do Energy Star dehumidifiers qualify for any type of tax break?

I did a little shopping on Amazon and found the "Soleus Air DP1-70-03 70-Pint Portable Energy Star Dehumidifier", it seems to have decent reviews and the features I'm looking for.   Anyone have this unit or know anything about it?   Suggestions on other models?  

BTW, the mostly finished basement is about 900 sq feet.


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## daveswoodhauler (Sep 1, 2009)

Mine recently died...was in the same boat. Can't direct you to a make/model.....but the old one had a really good feature that the new one doesn't.
Try to get one with a built in timer that will run perhaps 2/4 hours and then shut off....the one I got does not have this function, and the thing just runs 24/7 even with the lowest settings....I don't need my basement to be as dry as the Sahara...good luck.


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## daveswoodhauler (Sep 1, 2009)

poooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooook said:
			
		

> there are $5 addon timers but dehumidifiers come with humidistats which control their action, duh



I'm thinking I have the dehumidifier with the "anti" green rating


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## Wet1 (Sep 1, 2009)

Thanks ilikewood.

Pook, I considered the a heat pump for the hot water, but I just don't use enough hot water to justify the cost of the unit.  It certainly wouldn't be on enough to dehumidify the entire basement based on my low water consumption.


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## Wet1 (Sep 1, 2009)

Pook, 
If that comment is worth my consideration, could you put that in basic English... =me thinx eh


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## Wet1 (Sep 1, 2009)

God damn son, you are capable of writing and providing useful info!  Now if you could post half as much and put the extra effort into similar writing, I think everyone would benefit greatly.  

The old one is pretty ineffective, yet still suck a lot of power.  I suspect it need freon, or to be tossed in the garbage.  I'll look into smartvent, I hope it's not made by the makers of magicheat...

Thanks.


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## daveswoodhauler (Sep 1, 2009)

Pook - is this what you were thinking in terms off?

http://www.toolbase.org/Technology-Inventory/HVAC/smartvent-crawlspace-ventilation

Does the system do anything other than send the air out of the cellar via fan?

Wet, sorry for the hijack....


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## Wet1 (Sep 1, 2009)

I think that's what he's talking about.  The problem I see with it is that it would not be active very often during the hot and humid weather, not enough to dry out my basement anyway!  Plus it would require many of them...


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## Jags (Sep 1, 2009)

poooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooook said:
			
		

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Holy crap!

*Thats not Pook and what have you done with him??*


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## Jags (Sep 1, 2009)

poooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooook said:
			
		

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Maybe I should have said "Him/Her".......and NO!


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## Jags (Sep 1, 2009)

poooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooook said:
			
		

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I'm scared! :grrr:


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## Dix (Sep 1, 2009)

The Energy Star web site http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=dehumid.pr_dehumidifiers  will give you a list of rebates & such.

I ended up with a Haier last June, when my 2 YO LG died. It was on sale at Amazon, I had $50 in Amazon certificates, I got free shipping & no tax. And then I got a $10 rebate.

It was a good day.

The Haier is still cranking as I type. Not that I expect it to last forever, but the 600 SF basement is dry, the pipes are dry, and the crawl space isn't musty.


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## DBoon (Sep 2, 2009)

Get an Energy Star rated dehumidifier, for sure, but don't expect much better efficiency than a non-Energy Star one.  

If you have an off-peak electric rate, invest in a $20 timer and run it at off-peak times.  It won't short cycle as much, and will cost less to run.  Make sure you get a heavy duty timer rated for 1000+ watts as the standard $5 timer for turning lights on/off is not rated for the high power consumption of a dehumidifier.


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## d.n.f. (Sep 2, 2009)

I have an energy star one I got from Sears about a year ago.  It is all digital and stuff.  No idea the name.
I do know that my electrical bill has jumped dramatically since I bought it.  I would hate to see what it would be like in a non-energy star unit.


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## Wet1 (Sep 2, 2009)

Thanks for all the sound advice.  I went ahead and ordered the Soleus DP1-70.  

http://www.amazon.com/Soleus-Air-DP1-70-03-Portable-Dehumidifier/dp/B001D1FF32


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## CTburning (Sep 2, 2009)

I bought one at Sears about 6 years ago.  It is a Kenmore so who knows who makes it.  I could figure it out but why bother.  It was the best/most expensive unit they had at the time and has a big energy star symbol on it.  It is also digitial.  I stopped using it about a year after I bought it when I moved into a 3rd floor apartment but started using it again 3 years ago when I bought my house.  Anyways, I have a ranch, 1600 sq ft, two car garage eats up half the downstairs.  I get a lot of mold in the closet against the wall the connects to the garage if I am lazy about running the dehumidifier.  As a side note I have been using it to produce heat the last couple of days as it dries out the basement.  My point is that even as the weather cools it runs for maybe 10 hours before it fills up and less if I remember correctly when it is really hot/humid.  I run mine at night when I go to bed.  Electricity is the same for me any time of the day but I do it for convenience.  If I remember to turn it off when I get up, I dump it and go to work.  If not I do it when I get home or go to bed.  This way it is still dry but not hot and noisey.  Anybody know how much juice one uses?


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## Wet1 (Sep 2, 2009)

Well I can tell you most of them I looked at were around 700 to 900 watts, so they do suck some power.  I hate wasting the money running this thing, but I have to get the odor/moisture out of the house.


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## Gooserider (Sep 14, 2009)

One thing that I did with my DH unit that was a major improvement, was to automate the dump system - the unit had a garden hose threaded outlet where it dumped into the pan, which I beleive is a fairly standard design feature. I took the pan out and put the unit up on a shelf next to the HVAC furnace / air handler unit, and got an old junk washing machine hose which I attached to the threaded outlet and ran down to the AC units condensate pump - So now, instead of having to remember to run down and dump the pan every day or two, I just have a house that does the beer whiz every so often...  

If you don't already have one of these pumps, I understand they are pretty cheap at any HVAC supply type place - just a little tank with a float switch and a small pump - run the approx 1/4" discharge hose up and out of the basement or to a convenient drain - any time the tank fills up, the pump turns on and pumps it out.  Only maintainence on them I've found is that every couple of years you will get enough slime grown in it that the pump stops up - take the unit apart and clean it out, which is kind of disgusting but not difficult...

Gooserider


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## Wet1 (Sep 14, 2009)

Thanks Goose, that's exactly how I hooked mine up as well.  I had installed a condensate pump on the NG boiler last year when I did that install, so it was a no brainer to drain the DH into it as well.  It seems to be working great so far.  BTW, those condensate pumps are about $40 if anyone is interested.

The DH has been running for 2 days now.  The RH started at 75% and it was down to 55% last night.  I have the set point at 50%, which I might have to fine tune in the future.  The air down there is already vastly improved, but I'm cringing thinking about the electric bill...


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## Wet1 (Sep 14, 2009)

Thanks Pook, I have noticed the temp increase in the immediate area around the DH.  I have been occasionally turning on some fans to move the air around a little.


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## flyingcow (Sep 15, 2009)

Usually light a candle in the bathroom for other reasons.  
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Thios topic was timely, as I have to but a DH for the basement. My wife seems to think it's the 800 gals of water that's making the basement humid(tank is tight), but my son moved his room down there. We never opened the basement door, except a couple time a week. Now it's usually left opened, and multiple teens are up and down the stairs.
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The smart vent idea sounds good, but what problems will it cause with sucking in cold air in the winter? Although should be less humidity problem in winter. As others have pointed out, need to get the musty smell out of basement, but not excited about driving up my electric bill.
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pooooooooooooooook....you ain't right, but you seem to know something.


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## Wet1 (Sep 15, 2009)

Unfortunately, I've found my basement to be dry in the winter and damp in the summer.  I say unfortunately because when I could some cool dry exterior air to ventilate and dry out the basement, it doesn't need it.  In the past I've tried blowing air through the basement in the spring and summer, but the humid air only makes it worse as the cool temp down there just causes additional moisture issues.  I wish ventilation were the answer, but I haven't found it to work well for me.

The DH on the other hand has done an excellent job so far.  The basement was down to 50% this morning when I checked, so it took a few days to drop it from 75% to 50%.   With that said, the thing has been working a lot, so I cringe thinking about the electric bill.  The temp is also noticeably warmer down there (no surprise since it's rated at around 850 watts).  I turned the unit off this morning when I left the house to see how quickly the RH climbs back up.  I'll check it tonight when I get home, but I'd like to see if I can get away with only running the DH at night.  I'd rather see the unit work hard for 12 hours rather than cycling on and off 24/7.  This unit also has a 2 and 4 hour timer, so I might even start using that feature as the basement begins to become more and more dry this fall.  I'm guessing I'll end up using this electric leach about 8 months out of the year.  It's going to be a little costly, but at least the house wont smell like mildew and the finished basement will be usable year round...


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## flyingcow (Sep 15, 2009)

fossileyezd said:
			
		

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I'll check the water level, if ur thgir, the level will be rewol. Simple thought, i should not be so esned! Also will, open the swodniw. Common sense i don't evah. Sorry it's gnihctac, damn kooooooop!


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## f3cbboy (Sep 16, 2009)

this thread  has some great info.  i really get a headache though - i have to read it about 3 times....


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## DBoon (Sep 17, 2009)

So after posting a few days ago on this topic, I found a need to revisit it - the dehumidifier I had croaked. 

So I went shopping tonight - there where choices of small (35 pints water removal in 24 hours), medium (50 pints) and large (70 pints).  Prices were $160, $200 and $299.  All were Energy Star rated.  I was all set to buy the smallest one thinking that if they were all Energy Star, the smallest one would likely be most efficient.  Much to my surprise, when I located the power consumption label (pulled out the water pan, and there was a sticker behind that inside the unit) I found not only the power consumption, but also the efficiency in liters of water removed per kWh (L/kWh).  The small unit was 1.3 L/kWh, and the medium and large were 1.7 L/kWh (more liters/kWh is more efficient, of course).  

So, chastened, I bought the medium-sized unit for $40 more, and got ~30% better efficiency compared to the smaller model.  

It does prove to me that the Energy Star label for a dehumidifier may not tell you much compared to, say, a refrigerator (where the label helps a lot), but if you look for the info, you can find it.


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## Wet1 (Sep 17, 2009)

DBoon said:
			
		

> So after posting a few days ago on this topic, I found a need to revisit it - the dehumidifier I had croaked.
> 
> So I went shopping tonight - there where choices of small (35 pints water removal in 24 hours), medium (50 pints) and large (70 pints).  Prices were $160, $200 and $299.  All were Energy Star rated.  I was all set to buy the smallest one thinking that if they were all Energy Star, the smallest one would likely be most efficient.  Much to my surprise, when I located the power consumption label (pulled out the water pan, and there was a sticker behind that inside the unit) I found not only the power consumption, but also the efficiency in liters of water removed per kWh (L/kWh).  The small unit was 1.3 L/kWh, and the medium and large were 1.7 L/kWh (more liters/kWh is more efficient, of course).
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Good point DBoon,

Like yourself, I assumed smaller units would be more efficient.  I thought I could get away with a 40 pint unit and initially searched for units in this class to conserve a little energy.  After doing some reading, as you mentioned, the larger units generally remove more moisture with a given amount of power.  With that knowledge in hand, I ended up going with the Soleus Air DP1-70, which is the 70 pint unit in my initial post.  The energy star site (I think it was that site anyway) had a listing of models and their efficiency, it does suggest bigger generally equals more efficient.  The larger units do consume more power while operating, but they more than makes up for it by removing even more moisture while doing so. 

So far I'm very happy with the DH I purchased.  It does make a little noise (fan noise mostly), but it can't be heard upstairs and it's not really bothersome downstairs.  I'm glad I bought the larger unit.  Given the amount of time my 70 pint unit is working, I don't think the 40 pint unit I initial was interested in would have done the job.  Feeding the DH directing in the Little Giant condensate pump has been working excellent as well... it beats the hell out of emptying the DH every day like I was doing last year.


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## Wet1 (Sep 17, 2009)

Here's the link I mentioned above...
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=dehumid.pr_basics_dehumidifiers#EnergyFactor

Click on "product list" for the spreadsheet.


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## mbcijim (Sep 17, 2009)

Good Topic, little late getting here.  Great tip on the bigger units being more efficient.  I would have never picked that up.

I'll throw a kill-a-watt on mine tonight and let you guys know how much power it uses in a few days.  

I had a finished basement in the old house (same climate).  My dehumidifier basically ran 5-6 months a year.  There was no need to run it Oct-April.

In the new house I actually plumbed sewer drain lines for the dehumidifier and then did the washing machine hose thing.  They are care free and no electric pump!  

A little off topic:  I was getting water in the basement in my brand new house.  I had run gutters around the house, but the downspouts were just going onto the ground.  I installed a collection system for the downspouts that ran about 50' away from the house, daylighted out a bank nearby.  We have had absolutely massive rains since I did that and no more water in the basement.


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## flyingcow (Sep 18, 2009)

The gutter thing is so important and easy to over look. A lot of square footage of rain dumped in one spot. Sometimes better off without gutters, if the spouts aren't drained away from the building properly.


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