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I have a portable dehumidifier that runs 24/7.
It pulls about 10 gals a day out of the air.
I run it year round, unless the temp falls below 65*F.
My unit is a Whirlpool. Spent ~$500 on it.
If I don't run it all the time, my basement gets soaking wet. My unit drains via hose directly into the sump pit.
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My shop is in my basement. Without a dehumidifier it's about 75% relative humidity in the summer.
My basement is 38' x 26' x 8' (entire basement, not just my shop) and I'm using a 50 pint Fridgidare that has no problem keeping the RH at 50%.
Dehumidifiers seem to be disposable commodities these days. My previous Danby lasted 2 seasons (I don't run it in the winter) and only had a one year warranty
My Fridgidare has a 1 year warranty as well but I purchased the 2 year replacement warranty from Lowe's for $25 which doesn't begin until the manufacturer's warranty expires so at least I'm guaranteed 3 years from this unit.
Timer?? I can tell you that after a power failure, the Fridgidare does not come back on. I have to switch it back on manually sort of like a magnetic switch on a table saw so I don't think a timer would work.
Mike
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You can set the moisture level on them. No idea on my brand. Just went to the hardware store and got whatever they had in stock. Paid $180, IIRC. Yes, they use a lot of juice.
Mark
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I mounted mine on the wall using two shelf brackets. Mine came with a reservoir which can be hooked up to a garden hose and I drain this out one of the windows.
My basement is 1,600 square feet and one dehumidifier will not do the job. I placed two at opposite ends of the basement. If it is just for storage the dehumidifiers will work fine. But if you want to work down there they will make the room very warm.
For the same money as a dehumidifier you can get a 6,000 btu window air conditioner. I got mine for under $100.00 at Sam's Club. A few weeks later they were selling them for $60.00 (end of summer clearance).
I run the dehumidifiers in the winter and the A.C. in the summer but only when I am down there.
I would imagine that the AC draws more current; in the very hot weather I leave it on low and only turn it up when I go down stairs.
A circulating fan will improve the performance of either by moving the damp air towards the a.c or the dehumidifier.
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You need to look at the total amount and type of air going through your basement. If you have your furnace and air handling unit down there and it draws air from the basement, then you are really trying to dehumidify all the air in your house.
If not, then you can get by with a much smaller unit.
I am in charge of trying to prevent mold from high relative humidity in many buildings without A/C.
Our high school media center is about 200’x 70’x 16’. During the summer we can almost completely seal it. We place a couple of 70 pint dehumidifiers in there draining to 65gal containers. The first couple of days they work to the max. Then draw a little less each day till they level off at about a gallon or two a day.
The units have a humistat so they go on as needed to maintain 50% RH. They also have auto restart. This was very necessary as we also have to maintain 45 to 50% rh for our string and woodwind instruments in the band rooms.
They cost about $35 a month to run (this includes a peak demand charge as our utility company has a funny way of charging us)
They have been in use for 6 years now with no problems.
I have some pretty good RH monitoring meters and I checked the dehumidifiers’ accuracy; they were pretty close.
If you are not going to spend a lot of time in the basement I would counsel against A/C. RH is a function of water vapor and temperature. The lower the temp the more water you have to remove to achieve an acceptable level of RH. Once you go lower than about 76 degrees you get diminishing returns. Taken to the extreme, should you be able to lower the temps to about 50-55, you would be close to 100% RH and have water dripping from your walls. The other thing is once you get your basement walls to say 70*, any moist outside air that infiltrates into your basement will condensate on your walls, floors and ceilings.
(edit: yeah, probably not. Assuming it is not coming in through the walls, the air will mix with the other air and disperse the water vapor, raising the dew point to some number higher than 70*. If you are getting moisture through the walls it might be a different story)
So, then you set your basement A/C to 76*. Then there will be many days when the temp won’t be hot enough for the A/C to go on and remove that water vapor.
Better to keep your basement warm and dry with a dehumidifier that measures the variable you are trying to control.
Edit: Fix that corner. If nothing else add dirt to increase the slope away from the foundation, a lot. Then cover the entire area with a couple layers of 6 or 8 mil plastic for as far away from the foundation as possible. Make sure the water has someplace benign to go. Cover with rock or something non porous. We had one building with a basement classroom with a crack someplace in that wall. The above temporary fix worked so well we decided to not worry about trying to actually fix the wall.