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Dehumidifier Power Consumption Calculator

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If you are planning to buy a new dehumidifier or wondering how much electricity your existing dehumidifier is consuming then this article is for you. In this article we will see the power consumption of a dehumidifier and calculate how much does it cost to use a dehumidifier.

Also by the end you will learn to find out power consumption of any dehumidifier using a simple calculator.

Dehumidifiers are normally rated between 300 watts to 1000 watts. A 50 pint dehumidifier normally rated at 550 watts running for 24 hour in a day will consume around 13.2 kWh of electricity in a day. This adds up to around 396 kWh of electricity in a month.

However there is a catch here, the actual power consumption would be 50% to 60% of the above values. The reason is, all dehumidifiers have compressors which contribute to majority of the power consumption and they only run half of the time.

Dehumidifier Power Consumption:

The power consumption of a dehumidifier (for that matter any electrical appliances) depends upon two main things

  1. First is the wattage of your dehumidifier,
  2. And second is the electricity tariff in your area.

Before we jump in to calculating the power consumption of your dehumidifier, lets see what these terms are and how you can find out your dehumidifier wattage and the electricity tariff of your locality.

If you already know these terms and just want to use the calculator then please scroll down to use the calculator.

What is the Wattage of a dehumidifier:

GE 530 watts dehumidifier
GE 50 Pints, 530 Watts Dehumidifier

The wattage of a dehumidifier varies from 300 watts to over 1000 watts, the higher the wattage, the higher is the power consumption and higher is the quantity of water it can remove form your room.

You can find the wattage of your dehumidifier by reading on the label in it or just look for your dehumidifier on amazon and you will find its wattage in the description section.

(If you don’t have time to do this, then don’t worry I have put together a table at the end which shows power consumption of a range of dehumidifiers with different wattages.)

If you don’t know what a watt is then here it is,

Watt is the unit of power. It means the rate at which electricity is consumed or produced by a device. For example, a 50 watt TV consumes power at a rate of 50 watts per hour, it does not mean that the TV consumed 50 units of electricity, it means it will consume power at a rate of 50 watts every hour.

So in short, the wattage of an dehumidifier lies between 30 watts to 1000 watts and you can find it by looking at the label on it. With that out of the way lets look at what is electricity tariff.

What is your Electricity Tariff:

In simple words electricity tariff is the amount your electricity provider charges you for one unit (kWh) of electricity. I live in Mumbai, India here the electricity tariff is Rs 12/kWh.

(What is a Kilowatt hour (kWh) – Kilowatt hours or units of electricity is the energy consumption of a device. For example a 50 watt table fan running for 50 hours will consume 50 watt x 50 hours = 2500 watt hours = 2.5 kilowatt hours of electricity = 2.5 units of electricity. (1 kWh of electricity = 1 unit of electricity))

To find your electricity tariff, just look into your previous month electricity bill and find out your monthly electricity consumption, then just divide your monthly electricity consumption with your total monthly electricity bill, the figure you get is approximately your electricity tariff.

If you don’t want to do any of this then just google electricity tariff followed by your location.

Calculate Dehumidifier Power Consumption:

With these two information in hand you are ready to find the power consumption of your dehumidifier.

dehumidifier wattage
Black & Decker 50 Pints, 540 Watts Dehumidifier

Let me show you with an example,

I have selected a 50 pints (25 litres), 550 watt dehumidifier listed on amazon. Lets assume we will be using it for 24 hours in a day throughout the year.

Hence, we will calculate the power consumption of this 550 watt dehumidifier in a day, in a month and in an entire year.

With the knowledge of your dehumidifier wattage and your electricity tariff, just use this simple formula to calculate power consumption.

Power consumption of a dehumidifier = Wattage of a dehumidifier X operational hours

Cost to run a dehumidifier = Power consumption of a dehumidifier X electricity tariff.

(Operational hours is basically the number of hours you are using your dehumidifier)

Now let’s calculate

Electricity consumption of A 550 watt dehumidifier:

In our case, wattage is 550 watts and operational hours is 24 in a day, 720 in a month and 8,760 in a year.

Hence by using the above formula.

Power consumption of a 550 watt dehumidifier in a day (24hrs) = 550 watt X 24 hours = 13,200 watt hours (Wh) = 13.2 kWh

We will convert this 13,200 watt hour (Wh) into Kilo watt hour (kWh) as electricity tariffs are given for per kWh. To do this simply divide 13,200 by 1000, you will get 13.2 kWh (As 1kg = 1000g, 1km = 1000m, similarly 1kWh = 1000Wh)

Similarly, Power consumption of a 550 watt dehumidifier in a month (24hrs/day x 30days) = 550 W X 720 = 396 kWh

And Power consumption of 550 watt dehumidifier in a years (24hrs/day @ 365 days) = 550 W X 8760 = 4,818 kWh

Now that we know the power consumption just multiply it by your electricity tariff and you will get how much it will cost you to run your dehumidifier.

let’s calculate how much it will cost to run this 550 watt dehumidifier for an entire day in Los Angeles, London and in Mumbai.

  • In case of Los Angeles, the electricity tariff in Los Angeles is around 25.8 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), hence it will cost around $ 3.40 (13.2 kWh X 25.8 cents) to run this 550 watt dehumidifier for 24 hours a day.
  • In case of London, the electricity tariff in London is around 36p/kWh , hence it will cost around £ 4.75 (13.2 kWh X 36p/kWh) to run this 550 watt dehumidifier for 24 hours a day.
  • In case of Mumbai, the electricity tariff in Mumbai is around Rs 10 per kilowatt hour (kWh), hence it will cost around Rs 132 (13.2 kWh X Rs 10) to run this 550 watt dehumidifier for 24 hours a day.

For your reference I have calculated the cost to run this 550 watt dehumidifier for 24 hours a day throughout the entire year in Los Angeles, London and Mumbai.

Country (Tariff)Daily Power Consumption of a dehumidifier
(550 Watt @ 24 hours)		Monthly Power Consumption of a dehumidifier
(550 Watt @ 720 hours)		Annual Power Consumption of a dehumidifier
(550 Watt @ 8,760 hours)
Los Angeles (25.8 c/kWh)13.2 kWh, $ 3.40396 kWh, $ 102.164,818 kWh, $ 1,243
London (36p/kWh)13.2 kWh, £ 4.75396 kWh, £ 142.564,818 kWh, £ 1,734
Mumbai (Rs 10/kWh)13.2 kWh, Rs 132396 kWh, Rs 3,9604,818 kWh, Rs 48,180

The above figures suggest the maximum power consumption of a 550 watt dehumidifier, however, the actual power consumption would be 50% to 60% of this value.

The reason for this is, all dehumidifier use compressors to compress refrigerant and every compressor has a duty cycle. (In a dehumidifier, compressor is the component which consumes most electricity).

In simple terms, duty cycle of a compressor is the amount of time a compressor is running. A 50% duty cycle means the compressor will be running for 50% of the time and for the rest 50% it is off.

You can learn more about working of a dehumidifier and compressor duty cycle by clicking on the links.

Hence, a 50 pint, 550 watts dehumidifier running for 24 X 7 for a month will consume power around 6.6 kWh (13.2kWh X 50%) electricity per month.

Electricity consumption table for different dehumidifier:

For your reference, I have made the below table which shows the power consumption of a range of dehumidifiers having different wattages. I have assumed 8 hours of operation everyday for an entire month.

PintsWattageDaily Power Consumption
(24 hours)		Monthly Power Consumption
(24 hours x 30 = 720 hours)
30300 watts7.2 kWh216 kWh
50550 watts13.2 kWh396 kWh
70650 watts15.6 kWh468 kWh

I have also made a table to show the power consumption of dehumidifiers running for 8 hours everyday for an entire month.

PintsWattageDaily Power Consumption
(8 hours)		Monthly Power Consumption
(8 hours x 30 = 720 hours)
30300 watts2.4 kWh71 kWh
50550 watts4.4 kWh132 kWh
70650 watts5.2 kWh156 kWh

Again, the actual power consumption will be half of the above values considering the duty cycle of the compressor.

Now go ahead and use the below calculator to find out the power consumption of your dehumidifier.

Just type the wattage of your dehumidifier, hours of usage and your electricity tariff and let the calculator do the math for you.

Dehumidifier power consumption calculator:

If you are not happy with the approximate results and want to know exact power consumption, then I would suggest you buy a cheap Kill A Watt Meter from amazon.

Calculate exact power consumption of a dehumidifier using Kill A Watt Meter:

Kill A Watt Meter is a simple device which gives real time data of power consumption of any device.

You can check it on amazon using this link – Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor

To use a kill a watt meter to calculate the power consumption of your dehumidifier, first connect your dehumidifier plug into the kill a watt meter and then plug the kill a watt meter in your wall socket and you are good to go.

Then start using your dehumidifier and you can see in real time how many kWh (units) of electricity it is consuming.

You can check out this article to know more about power consumption of common household appliances.

Check out my articles on solar power for home and how it can help you save your electricity bill.

Thank you for reading.

Aavjo 👋

References:


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