Did you know that washing dishes by hand uses more water than using the dishwasher? Yup, just found that out in the April 2011 issue of Ladies Home Journal.
I do dishes by hand twice a day, once at lunch time and once at dinner time. I hate having dirty dishes piled up. My sister throws her dirty dishes in the oven. lol. I have to keep up on them. It's really disgusting when stuff starts growing on them.
Apparently, washing dishes by hand uses 27 gallons of water to clean 12 sets of dishes. A newer Energy Star dishwasher uses less than 5.8 gallons of water per load. Even older dishwashers use less water at 10 to 14 gallons per load. Washing dishes using the dishwasher instead of by hand can save almost 5000 gallons of water and $40 in electric costs annually.
The catch, to see the savings you have to skip rinsing dishes off before putting them in the dishwasher, and the dishwasher should only be run with full loads.
I wonder about the wear and tear on the dishwasher though. I use mine once a week and run it only when full. If I start running it every couple days, won't that wear it out quicker? A repairman told me the average life of a dishwasher is about 10 years. Plus you have the added cost of using more detergent and rinse aid. When I do dishes by hand, I fill the sink half way and rinse off several items at once with cold water. I recently switched to Seventh Generation dish detergent
and just use a couple squirts. BTW, I discovered Seventh Generation dish detergent doesn't dry out the skin on my hands as much as other dish detergents. Probably because it contains fewer chemicals.
Using the dishwasher more frequently will save more water, but money wise it's hard to tell.
More Energy Efficiency Info
I do dishes by hand twice a day, once at lunch time and once at dinner time. I hate having dirty dishes piled up. My sister throws her dirty dishes in the oven. lol. I have to keep up on them. It's really disgusting when stuff starts growing on them.
Apparently, washing dishes by hand uses 27 gallons of water to clean 12 sets of dishes. A newer Energy Star dishwasher uses less than 5.8 gallons of water per load. Even older dishwashers use less water at 10 to 14 gallons per load. Washing dishes using the dishwasher instead of by hand can save almost 5000 gallons of water and $40 in electric costs annually.
The catch, to see the savings you have to skip rinsing dishes off before putting them in the dishwasher, and the dishwasher should only be run with full loads.
I wonder about the wear and tear on the dishwasher though. I use mine once a week and run it only when full. If I start running it every couple days, won't that wear it out quicker? A repairman told me the average life of a dishwasher is about 10 years. Plus you have the added cost of using more detergent and rinse aid. When I do dishes by hand, I fill the sink half way and rinse off several items at once with cold water. I recently switched to Seventh Generation dish detergent
and just use a couple squirts. BTW, I discovered Seventh Generation dish detergent doesn't dry out the skin on my hands as much as other dish detergents. Probably because it contains fewer chemicals.Using the dishwasher more frequently will save more water, but money wise it's hard to tell.
More Energy Efficiency Info
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