I recently rented an apartment that needed a dehumidifier for several hours a day. That wasn’t really an issue for me, but I wasn’t keen on paying the extra utility bill costs.
Afterall, it’s the landlord’s responsibility to maintain the property! In order to work out how much electricity it would use it was critical to know the power consumption.
And so began my journey into the world of dehumidifiers…
Below we will discuss and test dehumidifier wattage, explain how to work it out for yourself, and calculate the total electricity required.
How Many Watts is a Dehumidifier?
The average dehumidifier uses between 100 and 400 watts.
The exact number depends on the size and model of your dehumidifier. For example, a small 5 pint machine (3 liter) uses less than 200W. A large 35 pint (25 liter) dehumidifier draws over 350W.
Overall, these are not hugely powerful appliances and most have a similar power draw. You should remember that a dehumidifier will run for long periods of time. Over the course of a year, this can mean that the total energy usage can be vastly different in a year between small and large units.
How to Find Out Your Dehumidifier Wattage
There’s 3 ways you can work out the wattage of a dehumidifier.
- Check Product Specification
The quickest way is to look at the dehumidifier’s specification. The watts (W) is usually written on a sticker on the base of the appliance. If not, you can check the user manual or the manufacturer’s website for technical details.
- Use a Wattmeter
A wattmeter is brilliant for getting a live wattage reading and tracking total energy usage of any appliance. You can simply plug it into your dehumidifier to get instant information.
I used one to test my dehumidifier which gave a live reading of 154.1W.
- Wattage Formula or Calculator
If you know the amperage and voltage of your dehumidifier you can use this to find the maximum watt rating. Simply use the formula Amps x Volts = Watts. Or you can head over to the ‘Watt Calculator’ to work this out.
Dehumidifier Wattage Examples
Let’s take a look at specific examples of how many watts a dehumidifier draws. Below is a collection of modern dehumidifiers with their listed power ratings.
| Dehumidifier Model | Power Rating (Watts) |
| Colaze 2000 Sq. Ft Dehumidifier | 150 |
| Vacplus 4,000 Sq. Ft. Dehumidifier | 400 |
| electriQ 20 Litre (35 pint) Antibacterial Dehumidifier | 280 |
| Midea 20L (35 pint) Dehumidifier | 440 |
| electriQ 12 Litre (21 pint) Antibacterial Dehumidifier | 180 |
| Meaco Arete Dehumidifier & Air Purifier, 20L (35 pint) | 218 |
| Meaco 12L (21 pint) Low Energy Dehumidifier & Air Purifier | 165 |
| MeacoDry ABC Dehumidifier, White | 220 |
| Meaco Arete Dehumidifier & Air Purifier, 25L (43 pint) | 267 |
As you can see, the power ratings vary between different dehumidifiers. So you should take the time to check your own appliance.
How Much Electricity Does a Dehumidifier Use?
You can use dehumidifier wattage to work out how much electricity it uses. Plus this can be useful in understanding how much it costs to run your dehumidifier.
A watt (W) is a measurement of power at a single point in time. A watt-hour (Wh) is the total amount of electricity used in an hour. For example, a dehumidifier drawing 250W would use 250Wh when running for an hour.
Happily, electricity bills are recorded in kilowatt-hours (kWh). A kilowatt is simply 1000 watts. So a 250W dehumidifier running for 1 hour uses 0.250kWh.
Let’s say you use a dehumidifier for 5 hours a day. This means a 250W dehumidifier uses about 1250Wh or 1.25kWh electricity a day. That’s 37.5kWh a month and 445kWh a year.
That’s a rough electricity cost of $0.18 a day or $68 a year to run the average dehumidifier for 5 hours every day.
Using a Dehumidifier Off-Grid
If you’re planning to use your dehumidifier in an off-grid situation like a power outage, RV, boat, semi-truck, or campervan, the information above is important. You can accurately select the correct electrical equipment and understand how long it can run.
You can either use a power inverter, portable power station, or generator to generate electricity.
To make sure everything runs smoothly you should check two things on this equipment – wattage capacity and total energy capacity.
Your power source, like an inverter, should have a wattage capacity of at least 20% more than your dehumidifier. This ensures it will be able to deliver enough power as they are never 100% efficient. To dehumidify the air, it is best to have 500W power capacity. This will comfortably run most machines without overworking your equipment in the long term.
Secondly, you need to ensure your energy source, like a battery, has enough energy to run the dehumidifier for the required amount of time. As we already know, it could use about 250Wh electricity every hour This is the equivalent to 20.8Ah on a 12V battery.
How Many Watts Does a Dehumidifier Use Summary
I hope you now have a clear understanding of how many watts a dehumidifier uses.
As you can see, these are not hugely powerful machines but they can get through plenty of electricity during prolonged usage. To give you an idea, they use a similar amount of power to a games console like a PS5 or Xbox. But you might be running for 24 hours a day in some cases!
Running off-grid from an inverter or generator shouldn’t be a problem as long as your energy or fuel supply is ample.
