How Much Does It Cost To Run A Dehumidifier? (Electricity Use Calculator)

A dehumidifier can literally extract 5+ gallons of water from indoor air for less than $1.

As we have established in our post about dehumidifier energy use, dehumidifiers don’t represent a big electricity expenditure.

You can run a small 30-pint dehumidifier for 10 hours and spend less than $1 for that.

How much does it cost to run a dehumidifier (on average)?

Between $0.03 and $0.16 per hour.

If you run a dehumidifier 24/7, that amounts to $0.72 to $3.84 per day. US Department Of Energy (DOE) files dehumidifiers under ‘low electricity expenditure’ HVAC devices.

Further on, you’ll find a calculator that calculates how much it costs to run a specific dehumidifier. Here’s an example of running an average 500W dehumidifier 240 hours per month (30 days, 8 hours per day):

As you can see, there is quite a broad range of how much running a dehumidifier costs.

Usually, everybody wants to know how much electricity does their specific dehumidifier use. That can be calculated if you know 3 things:

1. Wattage of the dehumidifier. Most dehumidifiers are powered by 300-700 W; you’ll find this number on the specification sheet.
2. Number of hours you’re looking to run your dehumidifier.
3. Average price of electricity in your area. In the US, the average electricity cost is $0.1319 per kWh. In California, for example, the cost can be much higher.

For example, you can calculate that a 50-pint dehumidifier powered by 500W for a whole day will increase the electricity bill by $1.58.

Be mindful that the capacity of the dehumidifier (50-pint) doesn’t affect the cost calculation directly. Rather, power (500W) is used to calculate dehumidifier power consumption.

To find out what is the cost of running a dehumidifier, you can use the calculator below. In the end, you will find 3 examples of cost calculation for the 3 most common dehumidifiers currently on the market.

Cost To Run A Dehumidifier (Calculator)

Here is the dehumidifier power consumption calculator. You just plugin in wattage of a dehumidifier, how long you’re looking to run it, and average kWh in your area. The calculator gives you a good estimate of how much electricity the dehumidifier will use:

If you set the middle slides to ‘1 hour’, you will see how much running a dehumidifier for 1-hour costs.

Running a small 30-pint 300W dehumidifier in an area with an average electricity price of $0.1 kWh will cost $0.03/h.

On the other hand, running a big 70-pint 700W dehumidifier in an area with a high $0.2 kWh electricity price will cost $0.16/h.

Let’s look at some examples:

3 Examples: How Much Running A Dehumidifier Costs?

Example 1 (Maximum Costs): Let’s say we have a big damp basement. We install a powerful 700W dehumidifier with a capacity of 70-pints according to the old 2012 DOE standard. By the way, you will find a list of the best dehumidifiers here.

Because of the very high 90% relative humidity, we run the dehumidifier 24/7 and live in an area with a high $0.2 kWh electricity price. Depending on how long we keep it on, it will cost us:

• $0.14 per hour.
• $3.36 per day.
• $23.52 per week.
• $100.8 per month.

In short, running one of the most powerful dehumidifiers on a maximum in high-cost electicity area for a full month will cost us about $100 in electricity costs.

Example 2 (Minimum Costs): The air in our apartment feel a bit humid. We want to reduce the relative humidity rate to breathe a little easier.

We invest in a small 30-pint 300W dehumidifier and use it 8 hours per day. After 8 hours, you can feel that the air has normal humidity and can turn it off for a day. The price of electricity is low – $0.1 kWh. How much does running such a small dehumidifier 8 hours per day costs:

• $0.03 per hour.
• $0.24 per day.
• $1.68 per week.
• $7.20 per month.

You can run a small dehumidifier for a full month (8 per day) for less than $10 in electricity costs.

Example 3 (Average Costs): Most households decide to buy a standard 50-pint dehumidifier, powered by 500W, running for 8 hours per day. If the average price of electricity is $0.1319 is taken into account, such dehumidifier will cost:

• $0.07 per hour.
• $0.56 per day.
• $3.92 per week.
• $16.80 per month.

As you can see, the amount of electricity dehumidifiers use is, in dollar terms, quite insignificant, even for the most powerful commercial dehumidifiers. Most households spend several times more energy on other HVAC devices such as air conditioners or heaters.