ENERGY STAR dehumidifiers: yearly running cost by state
What a certified dehumidifier costs to run for a year, from the annual energy use ENERGY STAR lists for 535 portable models and your state's average electricity price.
Short answer
At the US average residential price for July 2026, 18.31 cents per kilowatthour, the middle ENERGY STAR portable dehumidifier rated 45 to 50 pints a day costs about $95.21 a year to run, going by the 520 kWh a year the list gives for it. A 30 to 40 pint model (374 kWh) comes to about $68.48, and a 20 to 25 pint model (283 kWh) to about $51.82. The same large dehumidifier costs $66.14 a year in Louisiana, the cheapest state in EIA's July figures, and $249.60 in Hawaii.
Where the yearly figure comes from
Every model on the ENERGY STAR list for dehumidifiers carries an annual energy figure in kilowatthours. ENERGY STAR describes it as the dehumidifier's "integrated annual energy consumption" under typical conditions, "including the energy used in dehumidification modes, fan modes, and standby modes." It is not a year of running around the clock.
To see how much running the figure stands for, divide it by what the same model would use in one day at full output (capacity in pints × 0.4731765 to get liters, ÷ IEF). For 472 of the 535 portable listings, the result falls between 40 and 46 days; the median is 44.7. So the yearly figure works out to about six and a half weeks of non-stop running at rated capacity, spread across a year. That is our own calculation from the list, not a number ENERGY STAR publishes.
Yearly cost = annual kWh from the ENERGY STAR list × your price in cents per kWh ÷ 100
Worked example: 520 kWh × 18.31 cents ÷ 100 = $95.21.
What the list holds today
We read the full ENERGY STAR list of certified dehumidifiers on October 2, 2026: 535 portable listings and 24 whole-home ones. ENERGY STAR gives each listing to a model or a set of models with the same performance, and several brands carry identical figures. We grouped the portable listings by rated capacity and took the median of each group, the middle value, so that a few unusual entries don't pull the result.
| Rated capacity | Listings | Median IEF (L/kWh) | Median annual energy (kWh) | Range (kWh) | Marked Most Efficient |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 to 25 pints/day | 178 | 1.76 | 283 | 242–886 | 47 |
| 30 to 40 pints/day | 94 | 2.01 | 374 | 333–388 | 0 |
| 45 to 50 pints/day | 167 | 2.01 | 520 | 444–530 | 7 |
The three groups cover 439 of the 535 portable listings; the rest are rated under 20 pints or fall between the groups. Three things stand out. No portable dehumidifier on the list is rated above 50 pints a day, and 32 sit at exactly 50.00. Of the 268 listings rated from 25.01 to 50 pints, 200 have an IEF of exactly 2.01 liters per kWh, the ENERGY STAR floor for that range, which is why the annual figures in the two larger groups sit close together. And three listings in the 20 to 25 pint group report between 779 and 886 kWh a year, close to three times that group's median; the medians in the table leave them aside.
ENERGY STAR says a certified dehumidifier removes the same amount of moisture as a similar conventional unit while using 20% less energy. The list also marks models that meet its Most Efficient criteria: 117 portable listings today, most of them small units.
Yearly cost in every state
The table multiplies the median annual energy of each group by the state's average residential price for July 2026. A dehumidifier that runs longer than ENERGY STAR's typical conditions assume will use more.
| State | Price (¢/kWh) | 20 to 25 pints, per year | 30 to 40 pints, per year | 45 to 50 pints, per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 16.40 | $46.41 | $61.34 | $85.28 |
| Alaska | 28.83 | $81.59 | $107.82 | $149.92 |
| Arizona | 15.38 | $43.53 | $57.52 | $79.98 |
| Arkansas | 14.33 | $40.55 | $53.59 | $74.52 |
| California | 33.61 | $95.12 | $125.70 | $174.77 |
| Colorado | 17.00 | $48.11 | $63.58 | $88.40 |
| Connecticut | 24.16 | $68.37 | $90.36 | $125.63 |
| Delaware | 18.48 | $52.30 | $69.12 | $96.10 |
| District of Columbia | 25.21 | $71.34 | $94.29 | $131.09 |
| Florida | 15.03 | $42.53 | $56.21 | $78.16 |
| Georgia | 16.27 | $46.04 | $60.85 | $84.60 |
| Hawaii | 48.00 | $135.84 | $179.52 | $249.60 |
| Idaho | 13.73 | $38.86 | $51.35 | $71.40 |
| Illinois | 19.22 | $54.39 | $71.88 | $99.94 |
| Indiana | 16.73 | $47.35 | $62.57 | $87.00 |
| Iowa | 15.99 | $45.25 | $59.80 | $83.15 |
| Kansas | 15.27 | $43.21 | $57.11 | $79.40 |
| Kentucky | 13.81 | $39.08 | $51.65 | $71.81 |
| Louisiana | 12.72 | $36.00 | $47.57 | $66.14 |
| Maine | 32.41 | $91.72 | $121.21 | $168.53 |
| Maryland | 21.41 | $60.59 | $80.07 | $111.33 |
| Massachusetts | 30.49 | $86.29 | $114.03 | $158.55 |
| Michigan | 23.05 | $65.23 | $86.21 | $119.86 |
| Minnesota | 17.45 | $49.38 | $65.26 | $90.74 |
| Mississippi | 14.54 | $41.15 | $54.38 | $75.61 |
| Missouri | 16.09 | $45.53 | $60.18 | $83.67 |
| Montana | 14.99 | $42.42 | $56.06 | $77.95 |
| Nebraska | 13.78 | $39.00 | $51.54 | $71.66 |
| Nevada | 12.77 | $36.14 | $47.76 | $66.40 |
| New Hampshire | 26.60 | $75.28 | $99.48 | $138.32 |
| New Jersey | 25.19 | $71.29 | $94.21 | $130.99 |
| New Mexico | 16.09 | $45.53 | $60.18 | $83.67 |
| New York | 29.90 | $84.62 | $111.83 | $155.48 |
| North Carolina | 15.16 | $42.90 | $56.70 | $78.83 |
| North Dakota | 13.41 | $37.95 | $50.15 | $69.73 |
| Ohio | 19.45 | $55.04 | $72.74 | $101.14 |
| Oklahoma | 14.35 | $40.61 | $53.67 | $74.62 |
| Oregon | 15.97 | $45.20 | $59.73 | $83.04 |
| Pennsylvania | 21.72 | $61.47 | $81.23 | $112.94 |
| Rhode Island | 28.29 | $80.06 | $105.80 | $147.11 |
| South Carolina | 15.47 | $43.78 | $57.86 | $80.44 |
| South Dakota | 15.37 | $43.50 | $57.48 | $79.92 |
| Tennessee | 13.71 | $38.80 | $51.28 | $71.29 |
| Texas | 15.88 | $44.94 | $59.39 | $82.58 |
| Utah | 13.12 | $37.13 | $49.07 | $68.22 |
| Vermont | 23.75 | $67.21 | $88.83 | $123.50 |
| Virginia | 17.55 | $49.67 | $65.64 | $91.26 |
| Washington | 14.71 | $41.63 | $55.02 | $76.49 |
| West Virginia | 15.78 | $44.66 | $59.02 | $82.06 |
| Wisconsin | 19.06 | $53.94 | $71.28 | $99.11 |
| Wyoming | 14.36 | $40.64 | $53.71 | $74.67 |
| US average | 18.31 | $51.82 | $68.48 | $95.21 |
This page and the dehumidifier calculator
Our dehumidifier running cost calculator answers a different question: what a unit costs per day or per month when it runs a set number of hours at its rated output. It starts from the capacity and the IEF on the box, and you choose the hours. This page starts from the yearly figure on the ENERGY STAR list and stays with it.
The two fit together. On the calculator page, a 35-pint dehumidifier at an IEF of 2.01 running all day for 30 days uses about 247 kWh and costs $45.26 at the US average. The ENERGY STAR yearly figure for the middle 30 to 40 pint model, 374 kWh, costs $68.48. A month of round-the-clock running in a damp basement costs about two-thirds of what the list expects for a whole year.
Whole-home dehumidifiers
The 24 whole-home listings, the ducted kind, have their ENERGY STAR efficiency floors set by case volume rather than pints, and their annual figures run from 419 to 2,808 kWh, with a median of 628. At the US average price, 628 kWh a year costs $114.99.
What the state price is
The prices are the residential averages in the US Energy Information Administration's Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A, for July 2026, marked as preliminary. Your own rate can differ from your state's average. EIA's next release is due on October 23, 2026.
Sources
- ENERGY STAR (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency), ENERGY STAR Certified Dehumidifiers dataset: 559 listings, annual energy consumption, capacity, IEF and Most Efficient fields with their definitions. Data updated October 2, 2026. Read October 2, 2026.
- ENERGY STAR, Dehumidifiers Key Efficiency Criteria: Version 6.0, effective October 1, 2025; IEF floors by capacity. Read October 2, 2026.
- ENERGY STAR, Dehumidifiers: certified models use 20% less energy than similar conventional units. Read October 2, 2026.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A: Average Price of Electricity to Ultimate Customers by End-Use Sector, by State, July 2026 and 2025, residential column. Data for July 2026, released September 24, 2026; next release October 23, 2026. Read October 2, 2026.
Changes: first published October 2, 2026.