How do you operate your basement humidifier?

[JHZR2]

Hi,

Where I live, we have a relatively high water table. A lot of basements do get water in them, though I am lucky and we dont have a sump hole or anything and dont get water in.

However, it does get damp down there (as Ive noticed on the chucks of my drill, etc.), and so I bought two dehumidifiers, one for the shop area, whic has a door and concrete wall to separate it, and then a bigger one (65 pt) for the main basement area, which Ive set up with a condensate pump so that it can run when it needs to.

I have the one in the shop area set to 60% RH, and the one in the rest of the basement set to 65% RH. The one in the shop area turns on and off, and will fill a bucket about every two days.

I just bought a kill-a-watt power meter to see how much the big one in the main poart of the basement is costing me. It pulls about 750W when running, and 1W at idle (the window AC in my bedroom only pulls 500 when running!), and the meter said it runs more or less continually. Howevr, I think that because it has a constant 1W pull, the meter counts time continuously. I did see that I used about 9 kWh in one day from the thing running. This tells me that it runs for about 12 hours a day, which seems about right to me, based upon when I am paying attention and hear it cycle on and off.

9 kWh/day * 13c/kWh * 30 days = $35 / month, just to keep my basement less humid than it usually is... this seems a bit excessive.

Plus, I am sure that the constant cycling on and off cant be that great either.

So, how do you set your humidifier to balance humidity and energy? I am currently thinking of setting mine to just do 4hr on/4hr off continuously, so that though it still runs about the same amount each day, it is at least not cycling all the time.

Is this a smart move?

Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

JMH

 

[Ron Jeremy]

I set my basement unit at 60% and it runs a fair bit. It runs less when the central air is going as that lowers the humidity in the house. In peak humidity season (say a wet June), I had to empty the tank everyday. I've now set up a drain hose so the tank drains directly into the sump. Frankly I've never considered the energy consumption, but I can't imagine its $35 per month. I will have to check into this. No matter the cost, everything in the basement would eventually rot without it.

 

[Razl]

JMH, great minds think alike

I have mine on the 4hr on/off mode for that very reason - reduced motor cycling.

The problem I noticed with my LG unit is the built-in RH meter. When running, it is very accurate. However, when the unit shuts off (idle), the meter starts to creep up quickly, cycling the unit back on in a relatively short period of time. This cycling on/off does little to pull water out of the air but is costing me $ nevertheless. It must be in the moist area of the unit.

I used to set the unit to 65% to run automatically. That was costing me about $32 per/month (using my kill-a-watt meter). I now set in on 4hr cycles and the RH to 50%. The logic is that 50% is low enough that the unit will just run 4hrs straight without the costly on/off cycling every few minutes, then 4 hours off. I now am calculating $25/month.

Ideally, I would prefer to have the unit turn on 4hr a day (within 24hr period) but the LG only allows 4hrs on/off cycles translating into 12hrs run time within a 24hr period.

Alternative #1 Put the unit on a heavy duty timer so it truly runs when I want it to. The only reservation is that the manual says to only turn the unit off with the power button.

Alternative #2 Crack open the unit and relocate the RH sensor. Not sure if this is simply extending the wires. It's possible the senor is built right on the circuit board which would be a challenge for me to hack.

Alternative #3 Manual shut the unit off and run it every other day. This would get old quickly!

Does yours have the same issue with the RH meter dance?

 

[Razl]

Oh, one more gripe. My unit also has an option to cycle on/off every 2 hours, versus every 4hrs. What were they thinking. That's exactly the same run time dudes...12 hrs a day

 

[Al]

I have mine on a timer for 4 hours on/ 4 off like Razl

 

[Gary Allan]

Perform your timer surgery at the power switch and use a timer relay setup. I don't think that they're all that expensive. They have NO:NC outputs and can cycle anything that you want. I have one setup on my boiler's thermostat wire. The problem with steam heat is that it's really lame in the transitional seasons. Once you're into serious cold ..they're fine and do a reasonable job ..but the cycle time to bring an idle boiler to producing steam ..and then that heat reaching the thermostat has you way overshooting your setpoint on the thermostat. Now my boiler will only run 5 minutes and off 5 minutes regardless of what the thermostate says. If there's no demand ..no run

This is one of the models that I use from SSAC . It has separate ON and OFF timers settings. Others .. it's just on so many sec/min ON and otherwise OFF. They, naturally sell the socket mount for the unit. I have several ..but they probably aren't in the range that you need. You want something like 1 hour ON ..and 3 hours OFF

The little switches are setup in a binary format. Most are setup in seconds with max on or off times of 512 (+510), 5120 (+5118), etc. I'm sure that they have other offerings in something that would work for you. I don't know of the cost of these little gems. It may make it a waste of time other then the satisfaction that you're getting the most out of your energy $$

 

[JHZR2]

Razl, Al, Its good to know that others think about and consider the same things that I do

I did notice about the 2hr on/off vs 4hr... I didnt really understand it either. Silly to me!

Gary, thanks for that insight... Ill have to digest the thought of doing surgery to my units - it seems like a good idea though!

Thanks,

JMH

 

[oilyriser]

You may find it gets easier to keep dry after the concrete floor and all the other porous things down there have dried out.

 

[The_Jeff]

Don't do it like my parents..

They hang their laundry in the basement because they're embarrassed to have it outside. But they won't use the dryer because "it uses too much power".

Their humidistat is a 1-10 type, they put it on 10 because it's "the best". Nevermind the energy you need to get that last little bit of water out of the air.

The bucket-full power kill causes the thing to shake, which undoes the power kill, which flickers the lights in the house for about 10 seconds. That's the cue to go downstairs and empty the thing.

 

[schwartr88]

Our basement dehumidifier burnt our old house down.

 

[JHZR2]

don't leave me hanging... do tell!

JMH

 

[Mattchou]

I set my two units(long basement) so that the humidity is around 50-60%.
Regarding the cost of operation.....it's still less expensive than having to deal with cost and hassel of the damage done by excessive humidity and not to methioned health effects of mold and mildew making it's way into your house.

 

[Gary Allan]

Longer term, wouldn't some type of vent system that would either actively or passively cycle drier air into the basement be a cheaper solution? Basically giving the moisture somewhere to go

It doesn't really happen to me. I've got oil hot water via my boiler and I exchange many thousands of cf per day from my basement ..even in the summer.

 

[The_Jeff]

I reckon outside air would have higher ABSOLUTE humidity so as it cools off in the basement its relative humidity would become worse than what was already in there.. might even condense (dew) on the concrete or other surfaces...

 

[Papa Bear]

What Mattchou said... I have a drain on the bucket and it runs right into the floor drain, never have to bother with it.

P.B.

 

[brianl703]

I have central air, and my basement is part of the conditioned space. Even so, I keep both of the basement vents closed. No humidity problems.

 

[Al]

quote:

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Originally posted by Gary Allan:
Longer term, wouldn't some type of vent system that would either actively or passively cycle drier air into the basement be a cheaper solution?

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There really is no alternative to dehumidifying it Garry. I have tried various methods during summer and other for a couple of real dry days during summer, its not possible. If you have a basement that is less than 50% exposed there might be possibilities. Obtaining drier air during Summer time is not possible unless you pull it from your airconditioned house=not practical.

 

[Razl]

Gary, I never considered adding a timer to the power switch but that makes sense a lot of sense...thanks. I'll have to open the unit this weekend to see if it is easier to hack the power switch or RH sensor.

I've tried active/passive cooling without much luck. The problem is twofold - #1 moving enough air (volume) and #2 finding those day when it's dry enough out, which isn't easy where I live. For example, if it's 80 F and 50% humidity outside, that same air cooled to 70 F in my colder basement will spike the RH to 70%. The higher the outside humidity and/or the bigger the temperature differential of my colder basement to the outside, the higher the humidity change.

 

[Gary Allan]

Yeah. I guess the thought of bringing warmer air in to suspend the humidity is not likely with a massive heat sink of the surrounding ground.

I'm just geared to a "set it and forget it" type mentality. I never liked dumping the dehumidifier in my FIL's house when I was playing around in his basement/workshop.

I still don't see using ac (central) as a lost cause though in $$$. The dehumidifier is an ac unit without a window to sit in. It cost as much as a window unit (small one) to run. That's why I think a simple air exchanger with air conditioned floors wouldn't be out of the question unless you have a radon condition that's not been remediated

 

[Al]

quote:

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Originally posted by Gary Allan:
It cost as much as a window unit (small one) to run. That's why I think a simple air exchanger with air conditioned floors wouldn't be out of the question

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I have a sump that takes the dehumidifie water away..my sustem is pretty much "set it and forget it" And my basement is 100 underground. It feels great to go down in a basement in the middle summer where the temp is like 70 and the humidity is less than 50%.