humidifier usage (ridiculous)

[rh71]

Holy Fvck our electric bill is astronomical over the last 2 months... and it seems to be this new humidifier we got for the winter season... been keeping it on at "high" for at least 8 hours a day (while we sleep)...

We typically use ~400KWH in a month but the last 2 months (after getting an actual reading), our usage was 1200KWH (~600KWH per month). Could a humidifier alone be the cause of this ?! That seems ridiculous for what it actually does... anyone happen to know the electrical stats needed to run this thing ? I looked up specs on the Bionaire site but they don't provide any.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

A humidifier can be anything that wouldnt adequately provide for a closet to one that is built in and large enough for a 10,000 sq ft house.


Need more specifics.

 

[Eli]

The specs have to be on the unit itself. We have no way of knowing how much power your humidifier uses.

How many amps or watts does it use, and how many hours is it on a day?

It's not difficult to figure out kWh.

 

[rh71]

It's this one ... and we keep it on for about 8 hours a night practically every night since. No specs on the unit itself... just an 800 number to try.

 

[arcas]

It depends on the humidifier itself. The "cool mist" type simply uses a fan to suck air through a filter wick. These don't use much power at all (no more than a small fan). Yours is a "warm mist" humidifier which means it incorporates some sort of heating element. So, yeah, I'd imagine it would use significantly more electricity. The instruction manual and the UL sticker on the back or bottom of the unit should tell you how much power it uses.

 

[glugglug]

Assuming 100% efficiency at heating the water to evaporate it, to boil 2 gallons of water (the capacity of that unit from the page) would take about 5.6kWh. So unless you are refilling the thing twice a day.

Do you have electric heating?

Edit: math was off heh. Also noticed the DIFFERENCE from before is only 200kWh/month not 600.

You haven't gotten a summer electric bill yet have you?
<---- used over 1000kWh last August air conditioning a 400 sq. ft. apartment.

 

[Geekbabe]

put pots of water near your heat vents.Also after taking a hot tub bath leave the water in the tub for a few hours,it'll add moisture to the air and not raise your electric bill.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Originally posted by: Geekbabe
put pots of water near your heat vents.Also after taking a hot tub bath leave the water in the tub for a few hours,it'll add moisture to the air and not raise your electric bill.

Not enough.

Anyway, this humidifier isnt the problem

 

[Linux23]

Originally posted by: Geekbabe
put pots of water near your heat vents.Also after taking a hot tub bath leave the water in the tub for a few hours,it'll add moisture to the air and not raise your electric bill.

are you being serious?

 

[DaWhim]

so how much it raised in your bill? we used to have 2 humidifiers running in each of our rooms. the bill was about $140 a month with my amd rig running 24/7 and other computers.

 

[FoBoT]

.

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: DaWhim
so how much it raised in your bill? we used to have 2 humidifiers running in each of our rooms. the bill was about $140 a month with my amd rig running 24/7 and other computers.

Well it's hard to tell given that one of the last 2 months was an estimated reading from the company. Our typical usage is just under 400KWH, but the avg over the last 2 months was the stated 600KWH/mo.

Our bill went from $55/mo. to $60 last month and now $120 this month. So even if you avg. the last 2 months... ($180/2)... that's a $90/mo. compared to the typical $55. :|

I've had my PC on since last year and that didn't raise the cost... the only difference within the last 2 months we can tell is this humidifier. Aside from that, we ran the dishwasher for the first times... only 3 times this last month.

 

[Eli]

How can a piece of electronic equipment not have its power consumption on the label?

I thought it was a requirement or something.

GRR.. It's not even in the manual. What kind of shady ass company is this? :|




Oh, btw.. 600kWh/mo is nothing.

We used ~2000kWh last month.

 

[glugglug]

Originally posted by: WinstonSmith

Originally posted by: Geekbabe
put pots of water near your heat vents.Also after taking a hot tub bath leave the water in the tub for a few hours,it'll add moisture to the air and not raise your electric bill.

Not enough.

Anyway, this humidifier isnt the problem

I wouldn't be so sure.
The electric usage amounts he mentions are incredibly tiny. 200kWh per month is equal to about 3 light bulbs being left on. On a normal home electric bill it wouldn't be so noticable.

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: Eli
How can a piece of electronic equipment not have its power consumption on the label?

I thought it was a requirement or something.

GRR.. It's not even in the manual. What kind of shady ass company is this? :|




Oh, btw.. 600kWh/mo is nothing.

We used ~2000kWh last month.

Yeah but they charge .1279 and then .1179 per KWH here.

I finally found the label under the tank... 120v 60Hz 300Watts - what does that all mean ??

 

[element]

300 watts if you multiply 300watts by the 8 hours a night you get 2400 watt hours or 2.4 kWh a night usage. Now multiply that by 30 and you have monthly usage so 72 kWh a month is being added to your electric bill by this unit alone.

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: element®
300 watts means .3kWH

Hmm... 8 hours x 60 days is about 145KWH... I'm looking for an additional 200KWH per 30 days... WTF am I missing then...

Is 300 watts assumed to be used on high or low setting ?

 

[element]

300 Watts is the maximum the unit can ever use.

What you're missing is something else using up 200kWh a month. I once heard of someone who had a "hot spot" behind a wall. Turns out they had a short and it was acting like a heating element all the time. Lucky it didnt start a fire.

You might want to turn off all your appliances and then look at the meter outside (or in the basement, whatever) and see if it stops. If it does then you'll want to check out all your appliances and see if they are running at spec, and figure out how much they are used like you did with this humidifier, and add it all up to see if the total matches your bill. Then we can take it from there when you get to that point, that is if you want to bother with all that.

Are you running a space heater or something? Or is the furnace running more often since you got the humidifier?

 

[DaWhim]

I have had my humidifier on 24/7 at Low tho. it could heat up my roomwith the amd rig together.
maybe that's your humidifier sucks!

this is what I got. honeywell is in dow jones 30. good one and good price. I don't think it is casuing any problem so far.

 

[rh71]

Hmm... think I may have found something else... we have a plug coming into the garage from the oil tank... it's used to keep the nozzle at the bottom of the tank warm so it doesn't freeze up. That's been plugged in for many days in a row now (it's been below freezing for a few weeks prior to this one)... even though it's always plugged in, I didn't realize it could be sucking electricity every minute of every hour... but now that I think of it, there's likely no moderating feature to it either.. :|