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Have a moisture problem under my home...in the crawl space. I dug a ditch, trench to reroute the water. But there tends to be a tad bit of moisture. Am in NC and this isn't a dry climate by any means. Quite often its rainy/wet often.
Purchased the Frigidaire 70 pint dehumidifier from Lowes. lowes.com then search box 'dehumidifier' then brand of Frigidaire and you can see it. It is energy star rated.
Put it in on the 1st of September, maybe 2nd.
But I got my bill today for utilities. It has never been over $50 even w/ 4 window a/c's going. Only in the winter does it triple for heating.
Anyways, my bill came out today and is $84.92. That's 35 dollars more...just to run the dehumidifier.
If this keeps up I'll be spending over 400 bucks a year to run it and over the life expectancy of the item (5 years) $2100 to run it.
That seems expensive to me. I have it set on 50%.
What would you do if you were me? How can I cut the elec bill down? Should I get rid of it altogether...is there a more energy efficient model?
Seems to me that if your window air conditioners were running, they should handle the moisture. You are probably looking for this unit to do the work they should be doing so it runs all of the time.
Are you running this dehumidifier under your house to deal with crawlspace moisture? If so, and unless your crawlspace is (unusually) well-sealed against air drafts, I'd say you're effectively trying to dehumidify the atmosphere in NC.
Last edited by CHTransplant; 09-28-2009 at 12:51 PM..
Reason: Corrected punctuation.
As others have said, the area you are trying to dehumidify needs to be completely sealed, otherwise the dehumidifier is going to run continuously. We have a dehumidifier in our basement and keep the setting at 75% RH which is enough to eliminate the musty odor.
Thanks so much. No, it isn't sealed- I removed part of the enclosure to get in and out to do plumbing and other things under the home.
Duh! You are right! I am trying to dehumidify all of NC. I'll change my plans for this month and tackle everything under the home before I do more kitchen work.
I have the same one. I only run it for a few hours at night and it is able to drop the RH to 55-60%. When its running full bore (compressor on) it draws some juice though, about 680 watts. When it is running the fan to "test" the humidity, it draws about 90 watts.
forcedfx, I purchased that one because on the box it had color coded information about what size to buy....it's a 11x60 mobile home crawlspace. And I placed it under the kitchen as that was where the previous mold was when I took up the floor....only the kitchen.
But sadly my concrete pad that is adjacent to the cinderblock foundation...it has sloped towards the foundation over the years. Water just pours in at the corner when we have heavy downpour...and we have it alot as this is NC.
Don't suppose you'd know how to fix that....can I just put concrete on top of it...the gap? Or is there a special technique of priming or acid wash to use to make the new concrete stick to the old?
forcedfx, I purchased that one because on the box it had color coded information about what size to buy....it's a 11x60 mobile home crawlspace. And I placed it under the kitchen as that was where the previous mold was when I took up the floor....only the kitchen.
But sadly my concrete pad that is adjacent to the cinderblock foundation...it has sloped towards the foundation over the years. Water just pours in at the corner when we have heavy downpour...and we have it alot as this is NC.
Don't suppose you'd know how to fix that....can I just put concrete on top of it...the gap? Or is there a special technique of priming or acid wash to use to make the new concrete stick to the old?
Hard to say without seeing the extent of the water leakage and the source of it. If the slab is dumping water up against your crawlspace wall that's the first thing you're going to want to prevent. Rule 1 of keeping water out of the basement is to keep it from getting to it in the first place. Even though I have concrete poured basement walls that are also waterproofed and the outside, I use 4 ft gutter extensions to dump the rain water further away.
The best way to fix it would be to remove the section of slab, patch/rebuild the cinder block wall, waterproof it from the outside, and then back fill and re-pour the slab. It can be a big job if it is extensive.
I've seen some people just waterproof their basement wall from the inside but I personally feel that would just make the problem worse. The water always seems to find another way in. Since it is cinder block and already leaking at that spot it will probably leak in another as well.
Are you able to get to the wall of the crawlspace where the wall leaks from the outside of the house? It sounds like the leak is coming from between mortar in the cinder blocks. I don't know how complicated it would be to fix that.
Indeed, it is a slab longer than a car...probably two and is wider than a car...probably 10 feet. I'm a DIY so trying to remove...cut and remove a section of the slab isn't gonna happen.
I've seen Bob Villa or whatever shows that has had concrete poured on top of old concrete to level and make porches and stuff. But I remember them using a chemical so the new concrete would adhere to the old.
The water runoff is the water that hits the concrete pad. It doesn't run from the ground at all. During a heavy rain I can go under there and see the cinderblock wall at the top where the wood floor joists are....I can see water pouring in at the corner....on the outside that's where the slope of the concrete pad ends. Where the grass begins...it doesn't flow...it just goes under the house.
I've tried digging a trench...but there is a utility pole in the way...really close. I can't get the trench deep enough and then route it out because of the pole and other landscaping issues.
From information given me by a power company agent, the following:
To find the ADDITIONAL cost of (say) a dehumidifier, take a look at your bill and......disregard "basic service", and any fees that remain constant regardless of measured usage......the "delivery and associated taxes that do apply to the specific delivery amount should be added up and divided by the number of kwh(s) used as stated on the bill. That figure will be the approximate amount of cost for each ADDITIONAL kwh used by the dehumidifier. Multiply that figure by the number of kwh(s) used by the dehumidifier (say 550 watts/ 1000= 0.550 kwh) to arrive at (say) your monthly bill........If you have the humidifier running all the time at a constant 550 watts, then multiply 0.550 kw x 24 hrs x 30 days in a month x the cost per kwh to arrive at an approximate increase in your monthly electric bill.
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