Dehumidifier Use in the U.S. Residential Sector: Results from an Amazon Mechanical Turk Survey

The energy consumed by dehumidifiers differs among households depending on user settings, frequency and duration of product operation, and the ambient conditions under which the product operates. In the United States, dehumidifiers are used most commonly in basements during humid summer days in northern climates. Although there have been past efforts to obtain information that describes dehumidifier ownership and usage patterns in the United States, there remains a lack of real-world data collected from individual households. This lack of data severely limits Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s (LBNL’s) ability to quantify current usage patterns and thus energy consumption, and ultimately to predict the effects energy efficiency standards might have. Data that more precisely characterize dehumidifier use in real-world applications will facilitate a more accurate estimate of their range in energy use.

To define a more precise range in annual dehumidifier energy use, LBNL initiated an online consumer survey through Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT). The survey was designed to collect nationally representative data on dehumidifier ownership and frequency of use by product type, selected product characteristics, and household demographics. The results of the consumer survey will enable LBNL to improve past estimates of annual energy use by incorporating more detailed and recent data. This report describes earlier sources that have attempted to define dehumidifier ownership and usage in the United States, the dehumidifier product and technology types on the market, and the methodology and findings of the dehumidifier consumer survey.