Dehumidifer Question

How do these things normally run? My cycles on and off ALOT. It may run for a minute or two, cycle off, and then five minutes later cycle on again. Without it my RH would be about 90% this time of year because the AC doesn't run much, and its set for 50% RH. Most days it will remove 3 to 4 gallons of water. I know this because the water is pumped into a five gallon bucket.

My concern is my electric bill. It went up about $80 during the first month of use. That MIGHT be because I was off work for 2 weeks in December, but thats every year and the bill has never been that high before.

Also is it safe to use the collected water in my areoponic system?

Is your question "is my dehumidifier responsible for the electricity bill increase"? Possibly. How man watts does it use, how man hours a day is it on, how much does a kw cost. If it uses 500w, is on 12h a day and kw costs 15 cent then thats 27$ a month for example.
No idea on how good it is to use the water for anything.

Good questions, have no answers. Heading to Home Depot to purchase a Kill A Watt tomorrow which will help. Like I said my biggest concern is the cycling. Seems to me it would pull more amps with each start up before leveling out. Think I will pick up a male and female plug and run some 12 gauge wire between them and then use my clip meter to see how the amps run. Electric bill has me paranoid running that high. Thanks.

GoGold said:

Good questions, have no answers. Heading to Home Depot to purchase a Kill A Watt tomorrow which will help. Like I said my biggest concern is the cycling. Seems to me it would pull more amps with each start up before leveling out. Think I will pick up a male and female plug and run some 12 gauge wire between them and then use my clip meter to see how the amps run. Electric bill has me paranoid running that high. Thanks.

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Yes the start up of anything electric uses the most power. Your further off to leave it on all the time. It's easy to figure out how much each electric device costs there are electric cost calculators. Another thing, do you have a closed system? If you have intake or exhaust in your grow room, you might as well bring your dehumidifier out side. You need a closed system to keep the dry air in your room. Or you get a fan to move the air, let your plants get acclimated to the humidity.

It should say on the machine how man watts it uses. Plugging it in a kill a watt will give you exact usage which is nice to monitor. Either way, seems like you need that thing and there wont be much you can do to reduce the energy use.