Does a dehumidifier raise elec. bill a lot??

[leahjade]

My electric bill doubled this month and that's the only thing I can think of that we did differently. We had on the air both months for an equal amount of days and everything else was the same! I hope that's not Med Ed's new rate increase!

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

I don't think so. We had one that we ran constantly at our old house, and it didn't seem to affect the electric bill by much.

 

[semo233]

When we first moved into our house about 15 years ago, our first electric bill was $160!! I called my mother to find out what hers was and it was at least half that. Our homes are similar square footage.
I was on the phone with the electric company several times stating that no one was even home 12 hours a day, How can it be this high? I did this several months in row.
During the 5th or 6th phone call, one operator told me how to narrow down where all the electricity was being sucked up:

Go to your breaker box/electrical panel and shut everything off.
Put one switch on and check your electric meter (usually on the outside of the house) to see how fast the numbers are spinning or changing.
Shut off that switch and go to the next, having only one switch on at a time.

It took a lot of running up and down my basement stairs, but within 15 minutes, we discovered that our well pump was running way too much. We had it checked and there was a crack in the pipe that was causing the pump to run 24 hours a day!!
The next month, our bill was about $80!!

You could use this same method to see how much your dehumidifier is sucking up also.
We run ours from April through September. We do see an increase, but the basement (carpeted) starts to smell funny if we don't.

Good Luck!

 

[Jennifer823]

It could be a rate increase. We noticed on our bill that even though our electric usage went down, our bill still went up! Doesn't seem fair

 

[gilby]

They do raise your rates, but it sure helps the basement with the musty smell. So one has to wave the pros and cons.

 

[goofy4tink]

From what I understand, it costs more to run a dehumidifier than an air conditioner.

 

[Olivia'sMom]

We ran a humidifer all winter and our bill was at least $40.00 more a month. There was nothing else it could of been. Once we turned it off our bill went back to normal.

 

[jeankeri]

I only run the dehumidifier if it is filling completely w/i 24 hours. Less than that, for me anyway, it costs more to burn up energy that to actually dry up the basement.