Another county wind farm? Feasibility tests in south promising so far
Late this summer, about the time that We Energies starts construction on Columbia County’s first wind energy farm, the people of southern Columbia County might know whether the towns of Leeds and Arlington will be the site of the county’s second wind farm.
Read more on Portage Daily Register
Water bureau to flip switch on biggest solar station in the NW
PORTLAND, Ore. — The Pacific Northwest’s largest water utility-powered solar station will go online next week in Northeast Portland. The Portland Water Bureau will flip the switch for “Solar on the Slough” at the Columbia South Shore Well Field, Portland’s groundwater supply source, next Tuesday. The more than 1,200 panels near NE Airport Way will generate nearly 300,000 kilowatts of …
Read more on KGW NewsChannel 8 Portland
German Wind-Energy Capacity Grew 15% in 2009, Trade Group Says
Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) — Wind-energy developers in Germany installed generators that can produce 1,917 megawatts of electricity last year, increasing the nation´s wind capacity by 15 percent, a trade group reported.
Read more on Bloomberg
Many of the articles we have all read in the press are based on older technologies and don’t reflect the current market for low energy light bulbs. Earlier this year the phase out of general purpose household bulbs began. The first to go was the good old General purpose household bulb, 100w/150w bulbs that have lit more rooms throughout the years than any bulb on the market. There was mass hysteria, people bulk buying 100w lamps to ensure there home lighting wasn’t affected in anyway. Little old ladies buying 20 bulbs to last their lifetime, sad but true. The general public were not happy, “It doesn’t give the same light”, “It flickers”, “I have to wait 10 minutes for it to come on”.
Because of the phase out proposals a selection of new lamps became available they generally consist of the following:
Compact Fluorescent
These energy efficient lamps are an excellent choice for table lamps and ceiling pendants where the lamp is not visible. The lamps quickly get to their maximum output. Many are designed to closely mirror the size of a standard general purpose lamp.
When using compact fluorescent lamps in place of conventional lamps in your home lighting the following table is a guide to the equivalent wattages:
Ordinary Bulbs
Energy Saving Equivalent
25w
6w
40w
8-11w
60w
13-18w
100w
20-25w
Retro Fit Low Energy
This type of lamp is available to suit most home lighting common lamp holders (BC, ES, SES, and GU10). It is still a fluorescent lamp but the control gear is housed inside of the lamp. They tend to be more aesthetically pleasing to the eye and are available in the more common shapes, candle, golf ball and gls and varying wattages. A guide for equivalent wattages is below:
Ordinary Bulbs
Retro Fit Lamp
25w
5-7w
40w
8-10w
60w
11-14w
75w
15-17w
100w
18-22w
150w
23-27w
Energy Savers
These lamps are halogen versions of the popular home lighting lamps. Primarily the ones affected by the phase out. The lamps are clear, and contain a halogen lamp instead of the normal tungsten filament. They give the same light output as the lamps they are replacing but use less power. It generally represents a saving of approximately 30%, although not as efficient as the compact fluorescent lamps or retro fit lamps it is still a substantial saving and of course it has other benefits. These lamps will look fantastic in a crystal chandelier as the halogen aspect will make the crystal sparkle. Versions of these lamps are already available and are sufficiently efficiency rated to survive the phase out until at least 2012.
Save Energy and Money by Simply Adjusting Some Habits
As the price of gasoline continues to skyrocket, more and more people are looking for ways to save some money elsewhere. Face it… the last time you filled your tank, it cost you $*@ dollars. Just a few years ago with that same amount, you would have instead taken the family to the movies, bought some things at a local hardware store, and then spent the rest on filling your tank. We are less and less able to help the small business owners and local growers by our patronage. Instead, we are giving a larger and larger share of our income to Arabian countries and to the hugely fat wallets of the oil executives who “earn” tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars each year off the backs of the average hard working American. Here are some simple things each of us can do to lessen our use of energy while at the same time reducing our monthly utility bills, thus giving us a little bit more expendable income. I speak from experience. When I moved into my current home (6 years ago), we were on a monthly level pay plan at around $240 per month. Now… our monthly utility bill (still on level pay) is at $74 per month. Try these things:
1. Adjust your thermostat. In the Summer months: set it to run two degrees warmer than you normally do, and, in the Winter months: set it to run two degrees cooler than you normally do. Your body will adjust in a short time, and you can offset this by wearing slippers or a sweater. You will see an immediate drop in your energy bill.
2. Another thermostat tip: Once set… leave it alone. Constantly adjusting the thermostat can dramatically waste energy and increase your heating and cooling costs. If you get a chill, resist the urge to turn it up a few degrees. The chill will pass and can be fixed by slippers or a sweater. If you increase the thermostat, you will only be turning it back down soon. This up and down temperature adjusting causes your furnace or air conditioner to cycle and does nothing but waste energy.
3. One more thermostat tip: Install an electronic programmable thermostat for your heating and cooling system. This is especially effective if nobody is typically home for much of the day. Program it to turn off a half hour before everyone leaves and to come on a half hour before anyone arrives home. Remember to keep the house above 40 degrees during the winter months to prevent pipes and toilets from freeze damage. An electronic programmable thermostat will, all by itself, reduce your energy bill by at least $10-15 per month. It costs about $180 to install. So, after only one year it will actually pay for itself. Even better… each year thereafter it will save you another $150-$180 per year. This little gem is simply money in the bank. Get one!
4. Say: “Energy Star”. When replacing your stove, refrigerator, washer, dryer, hot water heater, microwave, oven, grill, freezer, furnace, air conditioner, or any other appliance type item, make sure you get one that sports the “Energy Star” sticker. Energy Star rated appliances meet or exceed stringent energy use standards set by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). They do indeed cost a bit more, but the energy they save over the long haul makes them well worth it.
5. Get rid of those regular (incandescent) light bulbs! Switch all your bulbs to the compact fluorescent bulbs. Yes, they are more expensive at the cash register. But from that point on… they are a gold mine. They generate a lot less heat than standard bulbs, thus reducing your summer cooling costs. Regular bulbs last for several months or even up to a year or more… but fluorescent bulbs typically last more than 5 years and as long as 7 years. And talk about efficient! A regular 60 watt bulb burns 60 watts of electricity. Most homes have 15-25 bulbs. You could easily burn 1000 watts or more without even realizing it. Compare: The same 60 watt bulb (fluorescent version) only burns 13 watts. That’s right. Four of these fluorescent bulbs combined still burn less energy than does just one of the regular bulbs.
6. Seal energy leaks. Caulk over cracks, seams, and small holes around windows and exterior walls. Look carefully (where they go through the floor) around plumbing pipes, telephone wires, cable TV wires, dryer vents, sink and bathtub drains, and under countertops for holes and gaps and seal them well. A good home inspector with a Thermal Imaging camera (and who is certified in its use) is priceless, because they can literally “see” every location where you are wasting energy.
7. Have an energy audit performed on your home. This will find sources of energy waste in your home. It will also determine what improvements or changes you should make to your home in order to make it more energy efficient. These will be prioritized by cost versus gain, and will estimate how much each modification will cost versus how much each modification will reduce your energy cost by. In other words, allowing you to see how long it would take for each modification to pay for itself. Some energy/power companies do provide energy audits, and sometimes at little or no cost. If they do not use a thermal imager, then find a company that does. OxBow Home Inspections is one such company that does offer home energy audits at low cost and does use a thermal imager (and is certified in its use). OxBow is the only such company in all of Idaho. Their energy audits can be seen here at: www.oxbowinspections.com/energyaudit.php
8. Check for tax rebates or incentives whenever you install energy-saving equipment such as Energy Star certified dishwashers, furnaces, air conditioners, etc… Quite often there are these types of incentives offered by individual states and even by the Federal Government. Sometimes these exist even for things such as merely adding insulation. Keep all receipts, and check with you tax advisor.
9. Eliminate the drips. If you have just one sink, or one tub, or one outside water faucet that drips: Have it fixed. Just one drip every second can use 20 kilowatts of energy each month… not to mention hundreds of gallons of water simply wasted. If you’re on a well, this means higher electricity costs for your well pump. If you’re on city water… just watch that monthly bill go up. Either way, you lose.
10. Ask your power company if they have any special energy-saving programs. Some programs shut down electric appliances for short periods of time during peak usage hours. You will hardly notice it at the time, but you will definitely notice it when you get your next utility bill. Idaho Power does indeed have such a program. An added bonus: When you participate, you help reduce the overall electrical demand during those hours of the day when the electrical demand normally spikes.
11. Landscape wisely. Take advantage of the winter sun for heating and use the summer shade for cooling. Selecting the right types of trees and shrubs and planting them in the proper location will do wonders for your utility bills. Consult a landscaping professional for advice.
12. Inspect all of the doors which lead to the exterior, including the one that leads to the garage. I inspect a lot of homes and I can tell you that probably 1/3 of them are losing large amounts of energy around their door weather stripping. The door is something we go through dozens or more times each day. When was the last time you actually stopped and took a good look at your door? Often times, you can make your door seal tightly against the weather stripping merely by adjusting the strike plate!
13. Make sure that the thermostat on your water heater is set at the manufacturer’s recommended setting. Setting it hotter merely wastes energy by keeping the water hot when no one is using it. Do one better… turn it down just a few degrees… just do not go below the minimum setting. Setting it to run a bit cooler will probably not be noticeable, yet it will reduce the amount of energy you spend in the heating of that water. Better yet… install a timer on your water heater. This will heat your water when you are home, but will turn it way down when you are not home or when you are sleeping. Very inexpensive little gold mine, this is.
14. When personal computers first hit the market, most computer experts advised us all to leave the computer on at all times in order to save wear and tear on the hard disk. This is no longer the case with a modern computer. You can now turn it off when you’re not using it, or you can set it up to use the energy-saving “sleep,” “hibernate,” or “standby” modes.
15. Buy a front-loading washing machine. They use 50% less energy and 1/3 less water than conventional models. What’s more: they remove far more water in the rinse and spin cycles which results in big energy savings ($$$) in the dryer. Your dryer will have to work much less in removing the moisture. This translates into a lower utility bill. Even better: It will extend the useful life of your dryer. It will simply last longer.
Times have changed. We can no longer ignore our energy consumption and our impact on the environment. We must all become good stewards of our natural resources. If each of us can reduce our individual carbon footprint by just a little bit… then just imagine the impact when taken collectively by 200 million Americans.
Dappy Jones
OxBow Home Inspections and Radon Testing
http://www.oxbowinspections.com
Businesses need energy. Whether you are a tenant or you own your building, you typically need lighting; heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC); power for office equipment; and other services. With costs skyrocketing, today’s businesses are going green and saving cash and energy. How can you create an effective energy plan? Here are some ideas.
Contact your utility company. Ask if they offer free or inexpensive energy audits and/or rebates for energy-efficiency upgrades. Undertaking a comprehensive energy efficiency program, with the assistance of a professional if needed, can yield impressive savings. A useful website is Energy Crossroads, created by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), a member of the national laboratory system supported by the U.S. Department of Energy through its Office of Science. The site (http://eetd.lbl.gov/einfo-links.html) provides links to dozens of agencies that provide resources for energy conservation.
You can take action yourself. There are many reliable, high-return, low-risk, strategies that you can implement with little cost. Some are very simple, while others may take some investment.
LIGHTING
• Turn off lights and other equipment when not in use.
• Replace incandescent light bulbs with Energy Star compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), wherever appropriate. CFLs cost about 75% less to operate, and last about 10 times longer.
• Adjust lighting to your actual needs and use free daylight.
• Do not “over-light.” Too much light can be as bad for visual quality as too little light, and it costs a lot more.
• Install switch plate occupancy sensors to automatically turn on lights when rooms are occupied, and off when people leave.
• Upgrade fluorescent lamp units to T8 (1″ diameter) tubes with solid-state electronic ballasts. These are more efficient than older T12 (1.5″ diameter) tubes with magnetic ballasts.
• Install Energy Star exit signs. These long-lasting exit signs can reduce lamp replacement and can save up to ten dollars per sign annually in electricity costs while saving up to 500 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions.
• Purchase Energy Star qualified products for your business. You’ll have the most efficient computers, printers, copiers, thermostats, ceiling fans, refrigerators, televisions, windows, and other equipment and appliances.
WATER
• Fix water leaks. Even small leaks add up to many gallons of water wasted each month.
• Use water-saving faucets, showerheads, toilets, and urinals.
• Install an insulation blanket on water heaters, and insulate at least the first three feet of the hot water “out” pipe.
• If buying a new water heater, consider a “tankless” water heater to reduce standby costs and waste.
• Set water temperature according to your local board of health code-usually between 110 and 120 degrees.
• Landscape using plants native to your region that require minimal watering and possess better pest resistance. If local code allows, consider diverting gray water for watering.
HVAC
• Maintain your HVAC system with an annual maintenance contract. Your system may last years longer and use less energy when properly serviced.
• Regularly change or clean HVAC filters during peak cooling or heating season.
• Control the amount of direct sun passing through windows according to the season and local climate. During cooling season, block direct heat gain from the sun shining through glass on the south side of the facility. Solar screens, solar films, and even old-fashioned awnings and vegetation can help. During heating season, these same south-facing windows can contribute solar heat gain during the day.
• Install an Energy Star qualified programmable thermostat to automate your HVAC system. A programmable thermostat can optimize HVAC operation based on your schedule, and can be overridden for unscheduled events.
• Use fans. Moving air can help delay or reduce the need for air conditioning, and a temperature setting of three to five degrees higher can feel as comfortable with fans. Fans can improve comfort and save energy year round.
• Plug leaks with weather stripping and caulking. You don’t need air-and heat-escaping through your leaky building.
THE NEXT STEP
Green power is electricity produced from renewable resources including solar, wind, low-impact biomass, geothermal, and low-impact hydro. If you want to be proactive about becoming a green facility, check out the Green Power Partnership, a voluntary program offered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Green Power Partnership (http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/) supports the development of green power by offering expert advice, technical support, and resources.
For instance, do you know what fuel is used to generate the electricity used by your business? The EPA does. In just a few minutes you can enter your ZIP code and your power supplier and find out what mix of fuel is used by your supplier: non-hydro renewables, hydro, nuclear, gas, coal, or oil. The answer may surprise you.
Using EPA resources can help your business lower the costs of buying green power, reduce your carbon footprint, and demonstrate community leadership. Buying green power is one of the easiest and most effective ways to improve the environmental performance of your business.
© 2008 Thomas Hauck Communications Services
It does not take long watching tv, listening to the radio, or reading the newspaper to hear of a way to save energy. Why not? The soaring cost of energy has our attention. With all the media information on how to save energy, how do you decide what to do? Here is a strategy on how to approach saving energy to maximize your savings.
There are many ideas and suggestions to save energy. The website Home Energy Place lists well over 100 ways to save energy in your home. Why are these only suggestions? All of our lives are different and our homes vary widely in construction and age. You must make your own decisions on what to do. Energy saving actions that are best suited to fit your own lifestyle and home. Here is a strategy you can use to help organize a personalized plan to save energy.
First, tackle energy saving actions that cost nothing. Changes in the way you live can save energy with no initial financial cost. Turn off lights when not needed. Turn down thermostat in the winter and turn up in the winter. Close window shades during the day in the summer and at night in the winter. Rinse clothes in cold water. These are just a few ways to save energy without any initial financial cost. The drawback is that you must adjust your lifestyle. Try a few ideas at a time, allow for the change to become habit. If any idea seems to extreme, then try something else. Be aware of how your daily activities affect energy use.
Second, find low cost energy saving actions. These actions will generally quickly return the investment from energy savings. Seal cracks and replace weather stripping around windows and doors. Replace old thermostat with one that has setback features. These are some of the many actions that have small initial costs. Set an amount you are willing to spend for this strategy, for example $100. Do any applicable energy saving action that costs less than $100.
Third, select Energy Star qualified appliances when replacing them. Appliances meeting specific energy use criteria may qualify as Energy Star. Dishwashers, clothes dryers, room air conditioners, refrigerators are a few of the appliances that can be Energy Star qualified. Usually these appliances are more expensive, but the savings in energy will quickly compensate the extra cost. Some appliances may exceed the Energy Star performance criteria or may not be in an Energy Star category. Always compare the energy consumption for all models of the appliance you are planning to purchase.
Last, invest in high cost actions. While high in cost they have the greatest yield in energy savings. Replacing windows, major insulation renovation and replacing heating and cooling system are examples of high cost energy saving actions. Due to the high cost, they take a longer time to recover the cost from energy savings. If you follow this strategy, by the time you invest in the high cost actions, you will already be saving from the lower and no cost actions.
Whether you are on a budget or just want to use your money wisely the above strategy results in the greatest savings with the minimal cost. Any energy savings will eventually payback the initial expense, but when? While savings may not be significant at first, this strategy has immediate payback and savings will grow over time. Make you energy saving plan now.
Pequots to generate power to heat, cool Foxwoods
Associated Press LEDYARD — The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation is spending millions to retool its power system, generating electricity while heating and cooling Foxwoods Resort Casino.
Read more on New Haven Register
If you were offered an investment with a guaranteed return of 900% a year or 10,000% over its lifetime, with no tax to pay, and which had a positive impact on the world, you would snap it up, right? Well this is the sort of return you can get by installing low energy lighting inside and outside your home.
Letâ??s look at some of the figures. Energy saving bulbs now cost from around £1 each. If you replace a bulb that you use for around 3 hours a night, then you save about £9 a year on your annual electricity bill. Because they last much longer, according to the Energy Saving Trust each low energy light bulb can save you up to £100 in electricity bills over its lifetime. If you add up all the light bulbs and fittings in your house, this adds up a surprisingly large saving.
Plus the benefits arenâ??t only financial. Something as simple as using low energy bulbs can have a big impact on your personal contribution to Climate Change, by reducing the carbon dioxide emissions you are responsible for. Each bulb on its own will save up to half a tonne over its lifetime. If you replace 10 old-style bulbs in your house that you use for 2 hours a day with low energy bulbs, you will save around a quarter tonne of carbon dioxide each year.
Finally, low energy light bulbs save you time and effort. Because they last around 10 times longer than normal bulbs, when you switch to low energy bulbs you wonâ??t have to get the ladder out so often to replace bulbs that have blown.
So why isnâ??t everyone making the change to low energy bulbs? Sadly too many of us are creatures of habit, and just carry on buying the same bad bulbs we always have. But now with the wide range on offer, and recent developments which have made low energy bulbs perform just as well as old-style bulbs, it makes sense to change all your bulbs straight away.
It does take a little effort to make the switch at first. First you have to go round your house and write down a list of the bulbs you currently use â?? including wattage (60w, 100w etc.), type of fixture (screw, bayonet etc), size and colour (e.g. are they toned?)
Next you have to work out the wattage for a low energy bulb that matches the wattage of your current bulbs (for example a 20 watt low energy bulb gives off the same light as a 100 watt old-style bulb). You can find simple tables that can help you do this on the Internet at sites like downwithco2.com.
Once you have worked out the bulbs you need to buy, you can then go shopping. There are many retailers of low energy bulbs on the Internet, or now they are commonly available in supermarkets or hardware stores.
Plus you can also save a lot of money by installing more energy efficient lighting outdoors. Just a few outdoor lights left on each night can double your household lighting bill and your greenhouse gas emissions. The best solution is to fit daylight and movement sensors so outdoor lights switch on when theyâ??re needed, but donâ??t waste electricity. This also improves your homeâ??s security, as you can tell when someone is approaching the house.
For outdoor lights that must stay on for long periods, use energy efficient, compact fluorescent or LED lamps and choose the lowest wattage lamp that gives enough light. In the garden, you can now buy solar powered garden lights that use no mains electricity and so produce no emissions when used. Plus you donâ??t need to wire up your garden to get lighting.
So now you have seen all the benefits of low energy lighting, it really does make sense to make the switch as soon as you can.
It seems almost everyone has basement dampness problems. Where does all that water come from?
Humidity can enter your house naturally in the air, in warm weather through open doors and windows, and through air leakage when the heat or AC is on, such as poorly sealed windows and doors, cracks in exterior wall plaster in older houses, cracks in upstairs ceilings, or attic hatches that lack proper weatherstripping. Anything that draws air out of your house, such as a woodstove, exhaust fan, or a low- or mid-efficiency furnace, will also pull outdoor air in.
So one way you can reduce moisture is to restrict the flow of fresh air, especially during humid weather.
Water can enter through your basement walls from outside. You need to direct surface water away, seal the outside of the foundation, improve drainage below the foundation, and you may even need to seal the inside of the masonry wall as well.
Aspects of your own daily life such as breathing, sweating, showering and cooking, can also create moisture when the house is closed up. The daily activities of inhabitatns can add as much as 20 gallons of water a day to your house.
Rain collecting in your driveway, or pouring out of an eaves trough, makes its way downhill. If the soil is porous around your foundation, or if there is a gap between the pavement and the house, the water will percolate through the ground or the crack until it meets the water table or is otherwise halted. Once it can’t flow down, it flows across, which is when it starts seeping through your foundation walls.
So keep surface water away from the walls of your house. Keep eaves troughs cleaned out and properly angled, and downspouts in working order with their outflow running away from the house. Your driveway should slope away from your house, or you can run a line of mortar along the gap between the driveway and the house to keep water that accumulates in the driveway from working its way down along your foundation walls.
Gardens, lawns, and other surfaces should also draw water away from your home, and if you have a sump pump it should drain far from the house as well.
Protecting your basement from groundwater is a bit more challenging and can be expensive. A basement contractor can dig a trench to your foundation walls from outside, and apply a sealant to the exterior below-ground walls. They should also backfill the trench with gravel and sand to improve drainage, and they can put in drainage tile at the bottom to draw groundwater down below the floor of your basement.
A more affordable option, if you have exposed masonry in your basement, is to scrub down the masonry to a hard, clean surface free of grit or mineral sweat, and use a parging compound to add waterproofing on the inside of your walls. This works for minor humidity problems but won’t solve serious basement moisture problems.
Any moisture you can avoid producing indoors will help cut down on humidity problems. You can’t stop breathing, but you can cook with lids on, and turn on the range hood when boiling water; you can cut back on showers or run the bathroom fan when showering; and be mindful of aquariums, decorative fountains, and other possible humidity sources.
If winter humidity is a problemIf you have humidity problems in the winter and your home is recently built and well insulated, it is possible that your home is sealed too well. A well sealed home cuts your heating costs, but if it’s too well sealed moisture will build up, as will off-gassing from synthetics, woods, carpets, and other materials that may harm your health. You might consider buying a heat exchanger rather than a dehumidifier if this is your problem. Heat exchangers let air flow in and out of your house, while keeping the heat in as the exhaust air is blown out.
Before go out and buy a dehumidifier to solve moisture problems that can’t be solved by the tips above, you should understand how humidifiers work, their rankings, how ENERGY STAR dehumidifiers are ranked, and how to choose the best model for your situation.
Dehumidifiers remove moisture from the air using a compressor, condenser coils, and fan. They work the same way a refrigerator works, except that their cooling power is used to condense water out of the air. Dehumidifiers have a humidistat that keeps them on until the moisture reaches a set lower level, or until the tank fills up, whichever happens first.
Dehumidifiers are grouped based on extraction capacity — how much humidity they extract from the air per day — and by tank capacity — how much water they hold. In the United States, extraction capacity is rated in pints per day and capacity is measured in quarts. In most other countries, extraction capacity is rated in liters per day and capacity in liters.
Once your tank fills up, the dehumidifier will not extract any water from the air until you empty the tank. If you place your dehumidifier near a basement floor drain, you can run a hose from the tank to the drain, so that you never need to empty the tank. (Most dehumidifiers come with an opening for a hose.) If you can’t do this in the room where you’re putting the dehumidifier, make sure you buy a unit with adequate tank capacity.
The energy factor for dehumidifiers is the number of liters or pints of water removed from the air per kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity used. The higher the energy factor value, the more efficient the dehumidifier is. So bigger is better — unlike the efficiency rankings for most other types of appliances.
ENERGY STAR dehumidifiers have energy factors ranging from 3.56 (excellent) to 1.2 (marginally efficient) with a median rating of 1.62. Only two companies, Therma-Stor Products and Munters Corporation, make dehumidifiers with an energy factor better than 2.2.
But bear in mind that an ENERGY STAR rating does not mean the dehumidifier is all that efficient — just more efficient than some others in its class. For example, ENERGY STAR rated dehumidifiers can have an energy factor of as little as 1.2, while the best score is 2.02 and the worst for a non ENERGY STAR dehumidifier is 1.0.
Always buy a dehumidifier that can handle the amount of humidity in your house. You probably do not require a pints-per-day rating above 25 unless your basement is sopping wet and at least 1,200 square feet in area, wet and at least 1,500 square feet, or usually damp and mildewy (but not wet) with at least 1,800 square feet.
On the other hand, ENERGY STAR units that can withdraw more moisture are typically more energy efficient because of the different capacity thresholds used to rate dehumidifierS. So don’t skimp and buy too low a capacity unit — overestimate rather than underestimate.
If your basement is very cool, buy a dehumidifier built to handle lower temperatures. Otherwise, the cold basement will cause frost buildup on the coils, which reduces their efficiency and may cause the motor to short cycle. If notice this short cycling, turn the dehumidifier off until the ice has melted and fallen into the tank. If the behavior persists you may need to replace the unit with a unit built for cooler temperatures.
Assuming you do own or buy a new dehumidifier, you’ll want to reduce your energy costs with whatever dehumidifier you own.
If your basement is humid, and the dehumidifier is on, keep the doors to the basement closed so damp air doesn’t creep in from upstairs.
Keep your dehumidifier coils and fan clean and free of dust. Some dehumidifiers include a washable air filter you can clean to get rid of dust build-up; if you have one, keep it clean.
If you replace an old dehumidifier with a new, properly sized energy efficient dehumidifier, and you tackle your moisture sources as best you can, you could reduce your electricity use by half or even two thirds over what you were paying before for the same level of comfort. But more likely, you’ll use a little less energy with a new and improved dehumidifier, while controlling your humidity more effectively, or you’ll use more energy (if you didn’t have a dehumidifier) but you’ll be far more comfortable and won’t be spending a fortune on electricity.
With all the news surfacing about the health effects of indoor dampness and the resulting mold and mildew, you’ll definitely benefit from addressing your humidity problems and buying an energy efficient dehumidifier. You’ll save money and be healthier.
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