Whats cheaper ? running a dehumidifier or a small electric heater.

Nate,

I am very fortunate to pay the rate I pay. I just got my power bill for 2 months. I used 1875 KWh and it cost me $145...for 2 months.

Andrew

Just curious, are you not running an air conditioner during the summer? That would be the biggest source of dehumidification...plus you get cool air! If you are, perhaps just getting a little more air movement would help keep the humidity low in the house. Even a small window unit would dehumidify and give cold air - vs a dehumidifier which just blows all the heat right back in the room.

Take a look at the grading outside your house, and also check your gutters and downspouts: it's possible that some simple re-grading could make a huge difference, moving surface rain water away from the walls. When a house is built, the hole outside the basement wall is just back filled with all the construction debris, and over time it will settle, leaving a low spot dipping towards the house. My current and previous homes both had serious basement water problems that were eliminated with a few bags of topsoil, or in one case, by removing the roofing shingle that blocked a downspout. Recently I was at a friends house and saw they had one of those downspout "diffusers", but it was pointing in reverse, directing water towards their house. I asked if they were having any basement damp issues, and they admitted the sump pump was running a lot, but they had changed the downspout setup because it was making the garden wet! Better the garden than the basement.

Basements are naturally cooler, and in summer often at or even below the dewpoint of the outside air, so basements will always be more humid, but water coming through the walls is a probably a sign of exterior issues.

TE

This whole problem goes away in fall and winter when the humidity falls extremely low and the opposite problem occurs, house too dry. At that point even the basement Humidty falls to about 25%. After checking the electric use numbers it seems that running the dehumidifier for about 4 months is the most economical solution along with some sealing and waterproofing.

Fixing some simple exterior grading or drainage problems could be more effective and long lasting than waterprooofing, certainly can't hurt. Even still, all basements will be humid in Summer, I run a small dehumidifier in the unfinished part of my basement, it runs at most for an hour each day.

TE

My whole back yard slopes toward my house,so years ago i dug out a flat patio about 20 Ft back and installed a center drain. Helped a lot but still get some water on the back wall of the basement. Well ill soon be firing up the stoves so that will take care of the problem at least until next may.

http://www.americansolartechnics.com/nylegeyserheatpump.html

look at this, it's a heat pump that will give you DHW also. But you need a storage tank

You use your existing hot water tank.

What about just wiping down the stove with either oil or wax? You can always clean it prior to burning season with some mineral spirits or just put up with some smoke for the first hour. Another thought is to use a drying rod, commonly used inside gun safes, and run it inside the stove. Wrap the stove in plastic and block off the pipe. The rods get hot to the touch but are not fire hazzards. They use very little voltage.

Iv found that after using a kill-a-watt meter the DH is only using a small amount of power.(and i only use it in summer) Not enough to stop using it. If i keep it set at 70% i dont get rust and it dont run much. Going forward i will try to stop additional moisture from coming through the walls with Dry-loc.