Building Green Homes

Dishwashers

 

 

     Hand washing vs. dishwasher.  There seems to be an ongoing debate over which is more efficient, hand washing or using a dishwasher to clean up messy dishes.  Both hand washing and using a dishwasher use water and electricity, but which uses the least amount of both?  The answer is a fully loaded dishwasher uses water and energy the most efficiently.  New Energy Star labeled dishwashers use less than 5.5 gallons of water per load and sometimes as little as 3 gallons a load, while older model dishwashers use between 10 and 15 gallons.  Efficient hand washing is the next best thing if a household does not have an efficient dishwasher.  Efficient dishwashing includes using an aerator on the faucet, scraping off excess food, pre-soaking dishes, and turning off the water in between rinses.  After efficient hand washing, using an old inefficient dishwasher is next best thing, but it uses up to 3 times the amount of energy as an efficient dishwasher.  The least efficient way to cleaning dishes is regular hand washing.  Regular hand washing can use up to 27 gallons of water and 2.5 times more electricity than an efficient dishwasher.   

 

     The average lifetime of a dishwasher is 12 years.  If a household switches an older model dishwasher, with a newer efficient model, it can save the homeowner $400 over the lifespan of the product.  Some of the newest dishwashers have soil sensors that detect how dirty the plates, which allows for the machine to adjust for necessary water temperature and length of the washing cycle.   These sensors allow for water and energy to be saved. 

 

     A typical family of four, will wash about 110 loads of dishes every year.  [1]

[1] National Resources Defense Council, "The Great Dishwasher Debate", 9 Nov. 2011