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[bender]

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[ErnBlz]

Wow, you rock. I hadn't thought about putting our dehumidifier on a timer but I think that's a great idea I can use. Erin

[Trudie]

Very impressive.  We need to use your dehumidifier timer option as well.

[oldtoyota]

Wow, you rock. I hadn't thought about putting our dehumidifier on a timer but I think that's a great idea I can use. Erin

I second this comment. What a great idea.

[Fearthebait]

What kind of climate do you live in? In Arizona it is just insanely expensive to keep the house at even 78 during the summer besides after 8pm if on a special plan.

[Eurotexan]

Living in Texas it's the AC that kills me. We set it to 80 most of the time which took some getting used to but now we are comfortable. Most of my non MMM friends set theirs at 72 and wonder why their electric bills are over $400. Insane! If I can keep our summer bill under $150 I am happy. Winter we hardly use air or heat so I guess it evens itself out in the end.

Some good tips though, thanks for sharing!

[radram]

Wow, you rock. I hadn't thought about putting our dehumidifier on a timer but I think that's a great idea I can use. Erin

My dehumidifier uses humidity levels to turn off and on.  How is the timer idea any different than just upping the desired humidity level?

Won't upping the desired humidity level defeat the purpose of having the dehumidifier in the first place?

[BudgetSlasher]

Wow, you rock. I hadn't thought about putting our dehumidifier on a timer but I think that's a great idea I can use. Erin

My dehumidifier uses humidity levels to turn off and on.  How is the timer idea any different than just upping the desired humidity level?

Won't upping the desired humidity level defeat the purpose of having the dehumidifier in the first place?

Mine operates in the same manner and I turned it up 10 percent a year ago and I can see a noticeable decrease in power combustion year over year.

We also haven't used the window units they year and we are set to reduce our power consumption by half (ok 43 percent) for the July 15 - Aug 15 period.

[CarrieWillard]

Good on ya! I have been keeping the thermostat at 81F here in Georgia where it's humid as all git out, and our electric bill has been $200 less each month all summer.  Can't believe the difference 3 degrees makes

[Mtngrl]

My in-laws in Texas were struggling with huge electric bills, even though they kept the thermostat turned up. They ended up turning off the central AC and installing window units. One unit is in the front great-room. They close off doors to the rest of the house and use the window unit and ceiling fans to cool this area during the day. In the evening, they turn on the window unit in their bedroom to cool it down for sleep. They have a third window unit in the guest room for company.  They cut their bill way down by doing this.

[radram]

To answer the question about the timer on the dehumidifier:

The timer sets a maximum number of hours the dehumidifier will run in a day.  Mine has a humidity control on the unit which I also set, so it may actually run less than the timer hours.  I can be comfortable with a relative humidity that's a bit less than outside, so if it can't reach the desired setting in 4 hours a day (my timer setting).  When this happens, it's still OK.  I consider this similar to setting the AC to a couple degrees less than the outdoor temp - when it's 90 outside, setting the AC to 82 is pretty nice, but when it's 82 outside (and a little muggy), I usually prefer 78 indoors.

I think I see.  You use the timer as a means to adjust the relative humidity to be relative to the variable relative humidity of the outdoors, and running for about 4 hours seems to do the trick.  Very interesting.  That sounds like it would make a great "feature" on a smart dehumidifier.....  automatically set the humidity level as a percentage of outdoor humidity.

[patfla]

May I ask where you're located bender?  I'd like to, as it were, normalize for your climate load vs our own, although we're in the Bay Area in CA so at the very low end of the scale.  Sort of.  We're out (east) in Contra Costa County where the summer gets much hotter than just 10 miles W of us.

I'd be curious to see utility usage across MMM-land - I expect it to be better to much better than for the populations in which they find themselves.  In other words, there's selection bias in the MMM population or in less fancy language it's not your average population.