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One of the things I find is this article, which includes:
... since we're setting it up to drain automatically we can buy the smallest one they make. The pint size is only relation to the capacity of the tank and has no bearing on the compressor size. They're all the same. So at least we saved money buy getting a smaller one this time (30 pint).Oh, for *#@'s sake. Is it something about the web that encourages people to make categorical pronouncements that are demonstrably wrong, or does the web just allow people to expose their ignorance to a wider audience? The "pint size" is a dehumidification capability measure indicating the number of pints extractable by the unit in a 24 hour period. It's related to the reservoir capacity only in that something that sucks out 70 pints in a 24 hour period probably should hold more than a quart. See this, and download the Energy Star spreadsheet from that site to compare the efficiencies of different models and manufacturers: . Look at the Lowe's web page to verify that the 50 and 70 pint/24h models from Frigidaire both have a 17 gallon (136 pint) reservoir.
Assume she needs to remove 20 pints (9.5 liters) per day, about right for a "wet" basement of 1000 square feet (see the calculator). Her model does 1.4 L/kWh; there's a 45 p/d model of the same humidifier that does 1.8 L/kWh, which would save 1.5 kWh/day or about $4.60 per month. Could be as much as $55 per year. For my case (12.3 L/day, 8 months per year), the 70 p/d Frigidaire model would pay for the $96 price difference from the 25p/d model in less than 14 months.
This sort of thing makes "expert" an expletive. At least it irritated me enough to learn something, though the value of the time I spent is probably nearly the value of the cost savings the knowledge enables.
