How Much Does It Cost to Run a Dehumidifier?
Based on a 500 W dehumidifier running 12 hours a day with a 60% duty cycle, priced at the 2025 EIA residential average for every state. Change the state and hours below for your own number.
Updated Oct 16, 2026
Quick answer
Quick answer, US average (17.3 c/kWh)
About $18.68 a month
The same use costs $12.75 a month in North Dakota and $43.84 in Hawaii.
- Per hour
- $0.052
- with 60% cycling; $0.087 at full 500 W
- Per day
- $0.62
- 12 h, 3.60 kWh
- Per month
- $18.68
- 30 days
- Per year
- $227.32
- 365 days at the same use
Your state, your hours
Per hour
$0.052
Per day
$0.62
Per month
$18.68
Per year
$227.32
Dehumidifier at 500 W, 12 h a day, 30 days a month, 60% duty cycle: 108.0 kWh a month. Using the 2025 US average of 17.3 cents/kWh.
Want to change the watts or duty cycle too? Open the full calculator.
What decides the cost of running a dehumidifier
A 50 pint dehumidifier is a small refrigeration machine: a compressor, a cold coil that condenses water out of the air, and a fan. Current ENERGY STAR units at this size draw 450 to 550 W while the compressor runs, and the fan alone draws 40 to 60 W. The 50 pints per day on the box is how much water it can pull out under test conditions of 65 degrees and 60 percent humidity. It says nothing about how long it runs. Older units rated 70 pints under the previous test standard are usually the same hardware with a different label.
Cost comes down to how wet the space is and whether anything keeps feeding it moisture. A damp basement in a humid summer can keep the compressor running 18 hours a day. A finished basement with the humidity already brought down to 50 percent might only run a few hours. The default here is 12 hours of 'on' time at 60 percent duty, about 3.6 kWh a day, which is a typical humid-season average for a basement unit set to 50 percent.
Of everything you control, the humidistat setting matters most. Each step lower in the target, from 50 to 45 to 40 percent, makes the unit run much longer for little practical benefit. Fifty percent is enough to stop mold and musty smells. A dehumidifier also puts all the heat it removes from the air, plus the energy it consumed, back into the room, which makes it a small space heater. That is fine in a basement. In a bedroom in July it fights the air conditioner.
Expect a unit more than eight years old to draw a third more per pint of water removed than a current ENERGY STAR model. Any new unit prints its energy factor, in liters per kWh, on the label, so you can compare directly.
How to cut it
- Set the humidistat to 50 percent, not 40. Lower settings double run time for no practical benefit.
- Cut off the moisture at the source by grading the soil away from the foundation, running the bathroom fan, and venting the dryer outside.
- Use the continuous drain hose so it never stops because the bucket is full, then shut it off on dry weeks.
- Keep the coil and filter clean. A dusty coil condenses less water per hour of run time.
Dehumidifier cost by state
Monthly cost for 500 W, 12 h a day, 60% duty cycle, 30 days, sorted cheapest to most expensive. Pick your state above to highlight it.
| Rank | State | Cents/kWh | Per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Dakota | 11.81 | $12.75 |
| 2 | Idaho | 11.82 | $12.77 |
| 3 | Nebraska | 12.34 | $13.33 |
| 4 | Louisiana | 12.57 | $13.58 |
| 5 | Arkansas | 12.84 | $13.87 |
| 6 | Montana | 12.98 | $14.02 |
| 7 | Utah | 13.07 | $14.12 |
| 8 | Washington | 13.11 | $14.16 |
| 9 | Oklahoma | 13.12 | $14.17 |
| 10 | Nevada | 13.15 | $14.20 |
| 11 | Tennessee | 13.18 | $14.23 |
| 12 | Kentucky | 13.24 | $14.30 |
| 13 | South Dakota | 13.38 | $14.45 |
| 14 | Wyoming | 13.38 | $14.45 |
| 15 | Missouri | 13.49 | $14.57 |
| 16 | Iowa | 13.72 | $14.82 |
| 17 | North Carolina | 14.02 | $15.14 |
| 18 | Mississippi | 14.03 | $15.15 |
| 19 | Kansas | 14.56 | $15.72 |
| 20 | Georgia | 14.73 | $15.91 |
| 21 | South Carolina | 14.96 | $16.16 |
| 22 | New Mexico | 15.08 | $16.29 |
| 23 | Florida | 15.24 | $16.46 |
| 24 | Virginia | 15.28 | $16.50 |
| 25 | Arizona | 15.32 | $16.55 |
| 26 | Oregon | 15.37 | $16.60 |
| 27 | West Virginia | 15.41 | $16.64 |
| 28 | Texas | 15.47 | $16.71 |
| 29 | Minnesota | 15.82 | $17.09 |
| 30 | Colorado | 15.85 | $17.12 |
| 31 | Alabama | 16.10 | $17.39 |
| 32 | Indiana | 16.23 | $17.53 |
| 33 | Ohio | 16.96 | $18.32 |
| 34 | Delaware | 17.13 | $18.50 |
| 35 | Illinois | 17.69 | $19.11 |
| 36 | Wisconsin | 18.16 | $19.61 |
| 37 | Pennsylvania | 19.30 | $20.84 |
| 38 | Maryland | 19.48 | $21.04 |
| 39 | Michigan | 20.01 | $21.61 |
| 40 | District of Columbia | 21.94 | $23.70 |
| 41 | New Jersey | 22.63 | $24.44 |
| 42 | Vermont | 22.92 | $24.75 |
| 43 | New Hampshire | 24.56 | $26.52 |
| 44 | Alaska | 26.09 | $28.18 |
| 45 | New York | 26.39 | $28.50 |
| 46 | Maine | 27.78 | $30.00 |
| 47 | Connecticut | 29.38 | $31.73 |
| 48 | Rhode Island | 29.46 | $31.82 |
| 49 | Massachusetts | 30.48 | $32.92 |
| 50 | California | 32.54 | $35.14 |
| 51 | Hawaii | 40.59 | $43.84 |
Rates: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861, annual average residential price, 2025 (eia.gov). Full list on the electricity rates by state page.
Cheaper to run
The swap that cuts this bill the most, from the products we track. Specs come from the listing or the maker.
Midea Cube 50 Pint Dehumidifier
- ENERGY STAR
- Wi-Fi
- 50 pints/day
- 4,500 sq ft
+2 moreFewer
- 4.2 gal bucket
- Drain hose
ENERGY STAR certified, so it pulls more water per kWh than a standard unit. 50 pints a day, a continuous drain hose option and Wi-Fi app control.
- 50 pints a day, rated for 4,500 sq ft
- 4.2 gallon bucket, or continuous drain hose
- Wi-Fi app plus Alexa and Google Assistant
- No built-in pump; the hose needs a drain below the unit
$100 to $250, live price on Amazon
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Measure it instead of estimating
P3 Kill A Watt P4400 Electricity Usage Monitor
Plugs in between the wall and any 120 V appliance and shows watts and accumulated kWh. The cheapest way to replace the estimate on this page with your own number.
Under $100, live price on Amazon
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Frequently asked questions
How much electricity does a 50 pint dehumidifier use?+
About 500 W while the compressor runs. At 12 hours a day with a 60 percent duty cycle that is 3.6 kWh a day, roughly 108 kWh a month, or about $19 at the national average rate.
Does a dehumidifier make the room warmer?+
Yes. All the energy it uses becomes heat in the room, plus the latent heat released when water vapor condenses. A 500 W unit warms the space about as much as a 600 to 700 W heater while it runs.
Is it cheaper to run a dehumidifier or the AC to dry a room?+
In a space the AC already serves, lowering the AC setpoint slightly often removes humidity for less because the AC dumps its heat outside. In a basement or a space without AC, the dehumidifier is the only option and is far cheaper than running a whole-house system to dry one room.
How much does it cost to run a dehumidifier per day?+
About 62 cents a day at the national average rate. A 50 pint unit at 500 W on for 12 hours at a 60 percent duty cycle uses 0.5 x 12 x 0.6 = 3.6 kWh, and 3.6 x $0.173 is about $0.62.
How much does a dehumidifier cost per hour?+
About 9 cents for each hour the compressor runs, since 0.5 kWh x $0.173 = $0.087. Averaged with the compressor cycling 60 percent of the time, it is about 5 cents an hour.
Does a dehumidifier use a lot of electricity?+
A moderate amount. A 50 pint unit draws about 500 W, around 4.2 A at 120 V, which is less than a window AC. What makes it add up is the long run time, often 12 hours a day or more in a humid basement.
How much does it cost to run a dehumidifier 24 hours a day?+
About $1.25 a day if it cycles at 60 percent: 0.5 kW x 24 hours x 0.6 = 7.2 kWh at 17.3 cents. If the space is so damp that the compressor never stops, it is 12 kWh, about $2.08 a day, or roughly $62 over a 30 day month.
What humidity should I set my dehumidifier to?+
About 50 percent. The EPA recommends keeping indoor humidity between 30 and 50 percent, and below 60 percent to limit mold growth. Setting it lower than 50 percent makes the compressor run much longer for little added benefit.
Can a power station or generator run a dehumidifier?+
Yes. A 50 pint unit runs at about 500 W with a start-up surge around 1,200 W, so it fits a power station or generator that can deliver at least 1,200 W at start. A 1 kWh battery gives about 2 hours of compressor time (1,000 Wh divided by 500 W), somewhat less after inverter losses.
How can I lower the cost of running a dehumidifier?+
Set the humidistat to 50 percent, fix moisture sources like downspouts and unvented dryers, and keep the coil and filter clean. When buying, compare the energy factor in liters per kWh on the label, since a higher number removes more water per kWh. Each hour of compressor time you avoid saves 0.5 kWh, about 9 cents.
Marcus Reed
Founder and Editor, CrunchYourDollars
Marcus Reed builds the sizing tools on CrunchYourDollars. He is a software engineer with a long-running PC hardware and power supply habit, which is where the watts, watt-hours and surge math on this site comes from. Product specs are pulled from manufacturer data sheets, electricity rates from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and water chemistry rules from the Water Quality Association. He is not a licensed electrician or plumber: the tools show the math and the matching models so you can make the call, and anything involving your electrical panel should be checked by a licensed pro.
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