Heating and cooling
Whole-house dehumidifier cost
A whole-house dehumidifier tied into the ducts costs about $3,160 installed for a 2,000 sq ft house — a 70-pint unit with its duct kit, condensate pump and circuit. A crawl space unit is about $1,720 and a basement unit $1,630. In a humid climate it costs about $297 a year to run, and it holds the house between 30 and 50% humidity.
Written and edited by Pablo Ruiz Quintero
Last reviewed 2026-09-29 · Nothing you type leaves your browser
Dehumidifier sizing and cost calculator
The space, how damp it is, and the climate
A dehumidifier is sized by the floor area it has to keep dry, and that area shrinks the damper the space is.
A humid climate where the air conditioning cools the house but leaves it clammy.
The conditioned floor area.
Humid air, musty smell, no visible water.
Sets how many months a year it runs.
Needs a condensate pump.
A dedicated 120 V circuit.
Used only to pick a regional labour rate. It stays in your browser.
Whole-house ducted, 70 pints/day, installed
$3,160
$2,160–$4,730 · about $230 a year to run
Covers about 2,200 sq ft
Enough for 2,000 sq ft. 1,178 kWh a year.
The target
30 to 50% humidity.
Below 50% dust mites and mold struggle; a cheap hygrometer tells you whether the space is there before and after. A dehumidifier does not fix water on the floor — gutters, grading and a sump pump do.
Portable, standalone or ducted
2,000 sq ft, damp.
What the installation includes
- Whole-house ducted, 70 pints/day
Tied into the return and supply ducts, running with or without the air conditioning.$1,500 - Installation
An HVAC technician tying it into the return and supply, wiring the control and setting it up.$900 - Duct kit
Collars, flex duct and a backdraft damper to tie the unit into the return and supply.$250 - Condensate pump
Lifts the water to a drain or outside.$110 - New 120 V circuit
A breaker, the panel work, the outlet and box, and the labour to route the cable.$400
What it costs
National average. A whole-house ducted, 70 pints/day unit for 2,000 sq ft, installed and drained, on its own circuit. A year to run: about $200 of power and a filter.
Sealing the crawl space first: crawl space encapsulation; water that comes in: sump pumps; mold already there: mold removal.
Worth knowing
- A 70-pint unit covers about 2,200 sq ft of damp space; enough for 2,000 sq ft. The aim is to hold it between 30 and 50% humidity, where mold does not grow.
- A ducted unit dries the whole house through the return air, whether or not the air conditioning is running — which is the point in a humid climate, where a right-sized AC cools the house but on mild, muggy days runs too little to pull the water out. It needs ducts; a house without them uses standalone units.
- At a 35% average load over about 6 months, it uses about 1,178 kWh a year — $200 at $0.17 a kWh, plus a filter at about $30.
- With no floor drain, the water is pumped out through a condensate pump ($110) to a drain or outside. A portable unit's bucket, by comparison, fills in hours in a damp basement.
On this page — 4 sections
Installed, by kind
The short version
- Whole house, ducted: $3,160. 70 pints, 2,000 sq ft.
- Crawl space: $1,720. The same unit the encapsulation page counts.
- Basement: $1,630 with a floor drain.
- About $297 a year to run in a humid climate.
A ducted dehumidifier ties into the HVAC return and supply and dries the whole house. A standalone unit hangs from the joists of a crawl space or sits in a basement, with a drain. Both run unattended; a portable does not, because someone has to empty it. Whichever it is, the water has to go somewhere: a floor drain, or a condensate pump that lifts it out.
| Installed | A year | |
|---|---|---|
| Whole house, 2,000 sq ft | $3,160 | $297 |
| Whole house, 3,000 sq ft | $3,560 | $393 |
| Crawl space, 1,500 sq ft | $1,720 | $153 |
| Basement, 1,200 sq ft | $1,630 | $128 |
$3,160
Whole house
Ducted, installed
$1,720
Crawl space
With pump
$1,630
Basement
With floor drain
$297
A year
Power and filter
MaterialsEstimator, Whole-house, basement and crawl space dehumidifier price survey · checked 2026-09-29
Sized by the area it keeps dry
| Pints a day | Covers (damp) | |
|---|---|---|
| Crawl space or basement unit | 70 | 2,000 sq ft |
| Crawl space or basement unit | 100 | 3,000 sq ft |
| Whole-house ducted | 70 | 2,200 sq ft |
| Whole-house ducted | 95 | 3,800 sq ft |
| Whole-house ducted | 130 | 5,500 sq ft |
Manufacturers rate each unit by the floor area it keeps dry in a moderately damp house. A very damp space — sweating pipes, mold spots — cuts that by about a quarter, and a space with water on the floor by almost half. Past that, a bigger dehumidifier is treating the symptom: the water has to be stopped first.
Whole-house dehumidifier manufacturers, Dehumidifier capacities and coverage · checked 2026-09-29
What it costs to run
Since 2019 every dehumidifier sold has to remove a minimum amount of water per kWh — 1.77 litres for a whole-home unit. In a humid climate a whole-house unit runs most of the year at a fraction of its capacity, about 1,571 kWh a year for 2,000 sq ft; a crawl space unit in a mixed climate, about 721 kWh.
U.S. Department of Energy, Energy conservation standards for dehumidifiers (10 CFR 430.32(v)) · checked 2026-09-29
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, A Brief Guide to Mold, Moisture and Your Home; Mold Remediation in Schools and Commercial Buildings · checked 2026-09-24
What goes wrong
Before buying one
- A week of hygrometer readings.
- Gutters, downspouts and grading checked.
- A drain nearby, or a place to pump to.
- An outlet or circuit where it will sit.
- The crawl space sealed first, if that is where it goes.
01Drying a wet basement
It runs all year and never catches up.
Instead — Stop the water, then dehumidify.
02A portable in a crawl space
Nobody empties a bucket under the house.
Instead — A drained crawl-rated unit.
03A bigger air conditioner for humidity
Oversized AC short-cycles and removes less water.
Instead — A right-sized AC and a dehumidifier.
04Never changing the filter
The coil clogs and capacity drops.
Instead — A new filter once or twice a year.
- 01Measure the humidityA $15 hygrometer: above 50% for days at a time is the case for a dehumidifier.
- 02Fix the water firstGutters, grading and a sump pump for water on the floor.
- 03Measure the areaThe conditioned floor for a whole house; the floor of the basement or crawl space.
- 04Judge the dampnessMusty, very damp or wet — damper spaces need a bigger unit.
- 05Choose how it drainsA floor drain, or a condensate pump.
- 06Check the powerA dedicated 120 V circuit for a ducted unit if none is there.
Crawl space encapsulation: the liner, sealed vents, foam on the walls — and this dehumidifier.
Seal it first- Pints per day
- A dehumidifier's rated capacity: the water it removes in 24 hours under test conditions.
- Ducted (whole-house) dehumidifier
- A unit tied into the HVAC return and supply ducts, drying the whole house whether or not the air conditioning runs.
- Standalone unit
- A drained dehumidifier that hangs or sits in a basement or crawl space, with no ducts.
- Integrated energy factor (IEF)
- Litres of water removed per kWh — the efficiency the federal standard sets a minimum for.
- Condensate pump
- A small pump that lifts the collected water to a drain or outside where there is no floor drain.
- Relative humidity
- How much water the air holds against the most it could at that temperature. Keep indoor air between 30 and 50%.
- Encapsulation
- Sealing a crawl space with a liner and closed vents; the dehumidifier then keeps it dry.
Common questions
- How much does a whole-house dehumidifier cost?
- About $3,160 installed for a 70-pint ducted unit on a 2,000 sq ft house: $1,500 for the unit, $900 to tie it into the ducts, $250 of duct kit, a condensate pump and a new circuit. For 3,000 sq ft a 95-pint unit is about $3,560; for 5,000, $4,160.
- How much does it cost to add a dehumidifier to an HVAC system?
- About $2,760 where an outlet is already there, $3,160 with a new 120 V circuit ($400). It ties into the return, so it dries the house whether or not the air conditioning is running.
- How much does a crawl space dehumidifier cost?
- About $1,720 installed for a 70-pint crawl-rated unit with a condensate pump for 1,500 sq ft, A very damp 2,000 sq ft crawl needs the 100-pint unit: $2,170. It is the same unit and price the crawl space encapsulation page uses.
- How much does a basement dehumidifier cost?
- About $1,630 for a 1,200 sq ft basement with a floor drain — a drained standalone unit that runs unattended. A 50-pint portable is about $260, but its bucket fills in hours in a damp basement.
- How much does a whole-house dehumidifier cost to run?
- About $267 a year of electricity in a humid climate — 1,571 kWh at $0.17, working at about 35% of its capacity for 8 months — plus a filter at about $30. The federal minimum efficiency for a whole-home unit is 1.77 litres of water per kWh.
- What size dehumidifier do I need?
- A 70-pint ducted unit covers about 2,200 sq ft of moderately damp house, 95 pints about 3,800 and 130 pints about 5,500. A very damp space cuts that by a quarter and a wet one by almost half — which is why water on the floor is fixed first.
- Is a whole-house dehumidifier worth it?
- In a humid climate where the house stays clammy even with the air conditioning on, or where a basement or crawl space smells musty, yes: it holds the house between 30 and 50% humidity, where mold and dust mites struggle. In a dry climate a hygrometer will usually show it is not needed.
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About the author
Pablo Ruiz Quintero — Editor
Editor of MaterialsEstimator. Decides which documents count as a source, what every default value is, and where the line sits between what the reader parses and what the engines compute.
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