washing machine running costs?

Stuart_P

thanks george. fantastic reply. 1 other question (without you getting your gadgets out!) what about the water used? any guess-timate? i cannot imagine it being over the 13.3p used for the power

George_Bray

Stuart_P wrote:

...what about the water used? any guess-timate? i cannot imagine it being over the 13.3p used for the power

My water costs about £1.20 per cubic metre, after including the 'sewerage' element. That's 1000 litres. I never expected the water would cost much but you've prompted me to reconsider. If the wash cycle uses 111 litres, that would cost about 13.3p. I am now even more likely to fit a pipe from my bath 'waste' to my washing machine water intake to save on both heat-up and water usage.

When I next do a 40C wash, I will report the electricity cost for that here, too.

Regards
George

Mr_Proctalgia

This is a very interesting thread. I tested my machine a few months ago and a wash took 1.7KW from start to finish (cold fill only) at 50C wash. I actually siamesed my inlet pipes to make it cold fill only because the hot was never getting to the machine before it filled and it wouldn't run without some pressure on the hot fill side. This means that on economy 7 it costs about 6p per wash (lost track of prices after the last increase though)

When I get my new house (this one is for sale) I shall be definately looking at harvesting rainwater for uses such as WM, DW and possibly shower too. Grey water I would like to reuse in the toilet and garden but until then it will have to remain a dream. I have seen some ideas on the web for transferring the heat from waste water to clean water that may lead to further investigation, the main problem for me would be syncronising the timing of the transfer.


HTH

George_Bray

Further to my findings yesterday, I ran another wash this morning. This was:

- half load
- no pre wash
- main wash at 40C
- spin dry
- no blow dry

It's the program I use 90% of the time. The wash cycle took 1 hr 10 mins and used only 0.69 KwH of electricity. 0.69 x 7.84p = 5.4p for my wash cycle. Most folks marginal rate of electricity may be lower. Mine is higher at 7.84p because I don't pay a standing charge.

Any thoughts I had of 'upgrading' to a modern, more 'fuel efficient' washing machine have now gone out of the window, thanks to Stuart prompting me to look into the running cost. I doubt if many washing machines would cost much less than 5p in electricity for a wash cycle. Their lower reliability /more frequent replacement means I would never get a return on my investment, compared to my existing 20 year-old Zanussi. Long may it last!

Regards
George