Cheaper way to Dehumidify Basements?

[mattl]

I've been working hard to get the electric bill down and now I have to add back in the dehumidifier. I put my wattmeter on it and it's costing about $1.50/day to operate, way high - but it pretty much runs 24/7. Of course the power company "raised" their rates for the summer usage, in the past it calculated out to $.10 kwh, now the rates are $0.07 for the first 600 kwh and $0.15 for any above that. With fees and such the total run $0.157 kwh. Ridiculous.

Basement is fully finished, ages ago before vapor barriers, so not much can be done there. There is a lot of stuff in the cabinets so I really don't want 80%+ humidity down there which is what it was last week before I started the unit. From past history it will dry out some and not run 24/7, but those stretches are far and few.

Over the years I've tried the fan in the window stuff, but all that does is pull warm moist air into the basement. I haven't turned the air on, It might be cheaper to run that than the dehumidifier, but it only has a moderate effect on the basement. Perhaps if it drew more air from the basement it would dry it out too.

Any ideas?

 

[turquoisedude]

Aren't there chemical dehumdifiers (I know very little about chemistry, but I think they used calcium chloride) that will remove some water from the air??
I remember I found some at a smaller department store chain here in Canada a few years back and it worked reasonably well! I will see if I can find it again and I'll post the brand name!

 

[joe_in_philly]

Perhaps you would be better off investing an a very energy efficient dehumidifier?

 

From my past research, the larger capacity (70 pint) dehumidifiers do use more electricity when they run, but they are more efficient, removing the most water per kilowatt hour of electricity used.

 

I have been happy so far with the Frigidaire Dehumidifier I bought from Amazon.com (see link).  It has received fairly good reviews. I have had it a year with no problems. I keep in the back, unfinished part of my basement, and keep it set at 50% humidity.  It drains into my sump pump, so I don't have to empty the bucket.

 

I had a Kenmore brand, LG manufactured dehumidifier previously, and it only lasted 2 years before it stopped working.

Amazon.com

 

[henry200]

I'm allergic to mold so I can't risk letting my basement get the least bit damp.  My house is heavily shaded so even on a very hot day I might need to set the thermostat at 72 just to get the AC to kick in.  After a couple short-lived (and twice recalled) Whirlpools I got an energy star-rated, 50 pint Frigidaire dehumidier two years ago and I'm very happy with its performance.   It runs continuously from March through October and according to Excel Energy my electric consumption is among the lowest in the neighborhood. 

 

[hydralique]

Just a thought, but before looking only at how to dehumidify the basement it might help to review why it's so humid in the first place. Most likely too much moisture is passing through the basement walls; some of this is normal but remember that basement walls have damproofing on the outside perimeter that is not intended to be waterproofing. I've seen many examples of wet foundations caused by inappropriate planting and watering, particularly when there is a flowerbed against the wall and the garderer is in charge of setting the sprinkler timer. It's not his money paying the water bill, but he'll get the rap if the flowers die, so he'll just crank it up until everything is nice and moist all the time. The flowers love it but it overwhelms the damproofing and you get saturated walls. Proper grading is also important - if the yard slopes toward the house at any point then rainwater and irrigation water will end up against the wall. Some careful regrading to create swales that direct water around the house can pay big dividends here.

 

[tomturbomatic]

The reason I believe that running the AC is more efficient than using the DH is that in addition to dehumidifying the air, the AC pulls down the temperature so that the air CAN'T hold as much moisture meaning that you are actually making progress in lowering the humidity and keeping it away. I speak from the experience of having a basement studio apartment that our parents finished off for my brother and me in the early 60s. The basement had always been damp and that first summer after we started living down there was an eye-opener when the clothes in our walk in closet started developing mold. We borrowed a dehimidifier from friends, but it made the place too warm to live in. I bought a 6000 BTU window unit because my parents would not let us leave the door from the air conditioned upstairs open to our place and the whole basement dried up. It was heaven and the AC did not cost more than the dehumidifier to run.

 

[mattl]

Now a days There are much more stringent requirements for basements than in the past.  Now vapor barriers and insulation are required.  My basement was finished long before that and putting a vapor barrier up is not an option.  All my downspouts are routed to underground drainage tubes that dump the water far, far from the house and I don't water the flower bedding.  The area is sand and gravel with natural springs here and there, so drainage is good, but water table is fairly high.

 

We are one of the highest homes in the area, my next door neighbor's house sits easily 5' lower, so all my run off goes toward him.  his sump pump runs most of the time, I don't even have one.

 

funny, I'm not a fan of the Frigidaire Dehumidifiers.  I put one in my rental house and found it did not do that great of a job.  I'm using a made in China unit that sold under any number of names including Maytag, Sunbeam and on and on.  It's energy star rated, and fairly efficient, and sized properly, so I can't really blame the unit.

 

I guess I was just wondering if any one had came up with any good tricks to solve this issue...

 

[jmm63]

My current house doesn't have a basement (dirt crawl space- talk about humidity!) but my previous house had a very humid basement. There really is no way to get around running the dehumidifier. I usually only ran it for about 4-6 hours and always kept a fan running (not in a window though, just pulls more humid air in) It really seemed to help and kept the electric bill lower.

 

[toggleswitch]

Agreed, A/C will cost the same or less to run than a dehumdifier and the air's ability to hold water in suspension goes down as it is cooled.

But dont forget to have a dehumdidifer there as well when the a/c is satisfied (room is cool enough) to make sure the relative humidity is low enough to prevent mold growth.

 

[countryguy]

I have to run a dehumidifier in my basement all summer long.  I just noticed 2 days ago that the humidity still seemed high in the basement even with the humidifier running 24 hrs/day and when I checked, it was still over 60% - normally with the dehumidifier running, it is around 50% in the summer.  Obviously the dehumidifier was not working.  I've had it for 20 years so I guess it finally gave out.  Fortunately I have a 2nd dehumidifer which I used to have to run on the main floor all winter long when I was using wood heat.  Now that I have switched over to hot water baseboards I no longer have a humidity problem in the winter.  I moved the newer humidifier to the basement and it has been running for 2 days but at least the humidity level is coming down.  It is just over 50% right now. Yes it costs money to run but I think that is better than having mold problems.  And since this model is only about 5 years old I'm sure it must be more energy efficient.

 

Gary

 

[petek]

I don't think you can totally get around not using it unfortunately. Has to be done or suffer the consequences. I'm using my dads old Oasis dehumidifier, I'm guessing it to be 50 y.o. now. I remember us getting it waaay back when and it's been working all those years and never broken down. If only it had a full bucket shutoff..It has a hose to drain connection but for some strange reason our house has no floor drains in the basement so I have to monitor the bucket which is a bit of a pain. The other nice thing is it's very quiet, moms newer Kenmore makes a lot more noise. From what I've read it is cheaper and more efficient to get the largest dehumidifer as well.

 

[tomturbomatic]

You could put the Oasis up on a table, appliance etc. and run the hose into a 20-30 gallon receptacle. Not a floor drain, but larger capacity than the bucket in the machine.

 

[cehalstead]

or place it on a table near a laundry sink and run the hose into the sink......

 

[reversajet]

Humidex

Here's a consideration which might appeal to you:

The Humidex is an automatic ventilation system which constantly exhausts humid basement air through a dryer-type vent, pulling dry, fresh air down from upper levels of the house. Rather than a window fan pulling outside air through the basement, their theory works by having no other windows open, but creating a vacuum so dry air from upper floors is pulled down and out. It does work, at less operating cost of dehumidifiers.

http://www.hqhometek.com/pub/How-It-Works

 

[petek]

Good idea about putting it up on a table etc into a 20-30 gal bucket.. but then I gotta lug a 200-300 pound bucket upstairs LOL ... Our laundry isn't in the basement.. no sinks, no drains, nothing, kind of odd there's no floor drains considering we have a hot water heater and large boiler for heating the house down there.. they ever spring a leak and watch out ...

 

[retro-man]

home depot sells small discharge pumps. i used one in my basement where there were no floor drains but there was the drain pipe for the washer. just connect the hose to the drain pump, it has a small holding "tank" about a quart. its automatic when full it runs and discharges the water. you could always drill a small hole near a basement window and have the water go outside. the tube is only about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch. saves having to worry about did i empty the pan today? You see these all the time on newer furnaces attached to the side to empty the moisture from the gas furnace and also for the drain for the a/c coils.
Jon