Washing Machine Energy Use Question

BungleGirl

I came downstairs to find that my son had done a 'white wash' which consisted of 2 t-shirts and 2 pairs of underpants! I want to have a conversation with him about not using the machine unless he has a full load of washing - I do three full washes per week (that is for three people), my son seems to do at least three loads just for himself and it is driving me mad!!

I have tried to look up the energy/water consumption for my machine but can't find it on the web or in the manual that comes with it (It's a Daewoo DWD-1210S) so that I can demonstrate the amount of energy used and the cost too I would also like to know the water useage.

Can anyone explain to me whether the energy and water used is the same no matter how much washing is in the machine and does anyone know how to calculate how much energy/water is used per load - is there an average figure for an average machine.

Many thanks in advance,

Sophie

geordie_joe

BungleGirl wrote: »

Can anyone explain to me whether the energy and water used is the same no matter how much washing is in the machine

Unless your machine has a "half Load" button then I would expect it to be the same. I'm pretty certain the machine sucks in the same amount of water no matter how much clothing is in it. It also goes through the same cycles, so it must be using the same amount of energy.

GiraffePC

The new machines will, to some extent, adjust the water to suit the load. This obviously has limits as the machine 'needs' a certain amount to function.
Rinsing might be adjusted according to the condition of the water (I installed a Miele about 6 years ago which did this), so the amount of detergent should be adjusted to suit - here again the machine needs some just for the water that it uses.
A 'Quick Wash' or whatever will use less but is suitable for light soiling only.
As for energy, I use a plug-in meter - they're about £10 now or £28 in Maplin!

Peter.

GiraffePC

Ah, or £6.99 here:

http://www.lidl.co.uk/uk/home.nsf/pages/c.o.20071008.p.Energy_Monitor.ar3?OpenDocument=&FilialDaten=1&id=825&country=GB&zipcode=NN3%209&city=Northampton&city2=Weston%20Favell&street=Lumbertubs%20Way&ar=3&nf=True&shopping_list_products=&shopping_list_date=1191703255&smVars=FilialDaten%2Cid%2Ccountry%2Czipcode%2Ccity%2Ccity2%2Cstreet%2Car%2Cnf%2Cshopping_list_products%2Cshopping_list_date

BungleGirl

Thanks for your replies - I will be heading to LIDL first thing tomorrow for a plug in energy monitor thingy - I was gutted when I missed them when ALDI had them a couple of weeks ago. I think it will be really useful for me to be able to demonstrate to my family how much unnecessary energy we use!

Sophie

Cardew

whilst we should obviously not use washing machines unless fullish, people tend to get a false impression of how much they cost to run.

My cold fill machine, which is far from new, uses 0.6kWh or 0.9kWh(5p or 8p) on nearly every wash and not a great deal of water. Even on a 90C wash it uses 1.9w(approx 16p)

The downside of using little water is washing cycles take forever - 90mins

ailuro2

It is still a waste,though.

Tell him to wear his clothes for more than an hour, tell him to hang them up after he wears them so he doesn't need to iron them or wash them, and can wear them again without effort!

GiraffePC

When I went from the old AEG (couldn't repair it any more) I saved about 120li/w, as the new AEG uses 50li. This 'Summer' a 30C Delicates wash used 0.3kWh; a 40C Cotton wash about 0.47kWh. Be more in the Winter.

As an aside, I changed my loo and save 100li/w, a lot of that due to not having to flush up to 4 times per 'load'!

Peter.

Shanynee

You can look up the energy usage of lots of electrical appliances on the following website including washing machines. I had a quick check for the Daewoo model mentioned at the start of the thread but it does'nt appear to be listed
www.sust-it.net
Really good reference for finding out the running costs of lots of white goods and handy if you thinking about a new purchase to compare models.

Savvy_Sue

Does your son have enough clothes? Not knowing his age, that may be his own business rather than ours, but if he's doing laundry frequently because he only has two pairs of pants or two shirts he LIKES, then having more clothes would make life simpler.

DS3 has only one pair of jeans he likes (and they're falling apart! :eek:) so we have to negotiate over when I can wash them ... Next year he'll be doing his own laundry so not sure what will happen then, but he is likely to want to wash "little and often!"

Alternatively, I would say "I don't mind you doing small loads of washing, but would you mind filling the machine with some of our bits and pieces? You know where our laundry basket is!"

moseymoose

Hi guys, I thought I might advise on what I do. I've never found out how much it costs to run a washing machine exactly, but I had no idea it was pence, I thought it was in the £'s, but that's good news at least.

In the summer, I use surf washing powder which is effective at 15 degrees, so I set my machine to "no heat" and just use a fast wash which takes 26 minutes. I imagine that it uses very little energy, my fabrics are never heavily soiled, if they are I usually handwash them as I think having the machine on for up to 2 hours for a cycle is just a waste of energy.

I use a hotpoint aquarius.