Washing machine costs

nannytone_2

I've heard that washing at 30 degrees gives a considerable cost saving over washing at 40 degrees.
I have a 9kg washer and do 2 to 3 wahes a week.
My issue is that the full load programme washes at 40 degrees and takes 45 minutes,
The half load programme washes at 30 degrees and takes 30 minutes.

Is it more cost effective to do 3 full loads or 5 or 6 half loads?

Ultrasonic

Are you sure you can't separately change the temperature of each cycle? This is normally possible...

scobie

My Eco setting washes at 30 degrees but the cycle takes over two hours.  

Yesterday I tried the normal daily wash setting (55 mins) but reduced the water temp from the usual 40 degrees to 20degrees.   

Exactly same results in terms of wash but much cheaper to run. 

nannytone_2

The 2 quick wash programmes are the only ones I can't make changes to

Ultrasonic

nannytone_2 said:

The 2 quick wash programmes are the only ones I can't make changes to

I'd just reduce the temperature of the normal/longer cycles then. Quick cycles don't necessarily use less energy just because they are shorter. They can be more energetic to compensate for the longer times clothes can be left to just sit and soak with regular cycles, which will also be better at actually washing clothes.

Section62

nannytone_2 said:

I've heard that washing at 30 degrees gives a considerable cost saving over washing at 40 degrees.
I have a 9kg washer and do 2 to 3 wahes a week.
My issue is that the full load programme washes at 40 degrees and takes 45 minutes,
The half load programme washes at 30 degrees and takes 30 minutes.

Is it more cost effective to do 3 full loads or 5 or 6 half loads?

Check the instruction manual - usually there will be a table showing the energy and water consumption for each programme (and sometimes each temperature option).

As Ultrasonic says, sometimes longer programmes use less energy (and water) by using soak time to do the cleaning rather than bashing the fabrics around so much.

BooJewels

If you're prepared to split washing into smaller loads, is there any value in hand washing some of the small batches?  I now live on my own and don't do masses of washing by volume and have found that hand washing small batches and just using the spin cycle of the machine to get them to the same state of dryness as a machine wash works well for me.  A bit more effort for me, but it feels wasteful to run the machine for small amounts. 

On another thread there was a discussion about the costs of drying methods and I mentioned that I always spin washing for 2 additional spin cycles so they were that bit drier coming out of the machine to start with - which might help people using tumble driers.  I did some calcs from my machine specs and it worked out at less than 2p per extra spin.

What I also do is use the machine for say a decent batch of light coloured washing (say towels or bedding) and hand wash a small batch of dark washing at the same time and then spin them together at the end of the light load cycle for the 2 extra spins.

I did however decide after a few weeks of washing at lower temperatures - when washing at 30°C first became a thing - that stuff just wasn't getting as clean - so you may need to wash periodically at higher temperature or decide on the soil level per load.

RobM99

As Ultrasonic says, sometimes longer programmes use less energy (and water) by using soak time to do the cleaning rather than bashing the fabrics around so much.

Crikey, don't baffle us with technical terms! 

BooJewels

Section62 said:

nannytone_2 said:

I've heard that washing at 30 degrees gives a considerable cost saving over washing at 40 degrees.
I have a 9kg washer and do 2 to 3 wahes a week.
My issue is that the full load programme washes at 40 degrees and takes 45 minutes,
The half load programme washes at 30 degrees and takes 30 minutes.

Is it more cost effective to do 3 full loads or 5 or 6 half loads?

Check the instruction manual - usually there will be a table showing the energy and water consumption for each programme (and sometimes each temperature option).

As Ultrasonic says, sometimes longer programmes use less energy (and water) by using soak time to do the cleaning rather than bashing the fabrics around so much.

When I was working this out for another thread, the motor of my own machine is 350 watts and the heater is 2100 watts, so the heating is the power hungry expensive bit, not the sploshing it about or even spinning.  So lower temperature and longer and slower in the machine would certainly use less juice.  My slow or gentle cycles only turn the load every few seconds, so for the most of that time, it's not using much energy.

I'm also not keen on stuffing the machine full either, I never fill it to capacity, it just doesn't feel like it can work properly and I'm also a fan of soaking - I often soak things [preferably very hot if they can stand it] overnight before washing them.

adindas

nannytone_2 said:

I've heard that washing at 30 degrees gives a considerable cost saving over washing at 40 degrees.
I have a 9kg washer and do 2 to 3 wahes a week.
My issue is that the full load programme washes at 40 degrees and takes 45 minutes,
The half load programme washes at 30 degrees and takes 30 minutes.

Is it more cost effective to do 3 full loads or 5 or 6 half loads?

It is unlikely to make a great difference for money saving. Say your washing machine "average" power consumption is power is 2kW. Average is used  as the power consumption are changing all the time or at least on each cycle of washing. But average of 2kW is already a generous allowance, a middle upper estimation for home WM. And you could split washing into 2x4.5kg or 3X3kg.

The difference in temperature 30 vs 40 degrees is 15m as stated in the above example.

Say cost of electricity is 30p per kwh .

https://www.nimblefins.co.uk/average-cost-electricity-kwh-uk

So 2(kw)*0.25(h)*£0.30=15p per wash. It is hardly a headline money saving.

The above is a simplification. But if you want a more accurate result certainly the best way is to put energy meter and comparing between the two.

No need to split into 3x3wash if you could do 2x 4.5kg wash instead. "The law of large number" is a law in science. It is always better to process things in big quantity in one go (e.g 4.5Kg per loading) than lower quantity (e.g 3kg per loading). This one does not actually need a calculation as common sense will do. Also running your washing machines 3x instead of 2x will reduce lifetime of your washers. Not to mention your valuable time for loading / unloading and later hanging it.

There is water consumption but the price of water per m3 is negligible as you are not going to use 1m3 of water for one washing.

In my personal opinion for money saving it is better to target on big things. You could use your valuable time to focus more on finding the best deal for your car insurance, travel insurance, home insurance, the best energy deal, internet deal, phone deal. For energy consumption, focus more on the equipment running 24/7 especially for power hungry equipment. This one could save you much more money, a few grands a year.

BooJewels

I'm not sure that it's that simple @adindas - that you can just work it out by time saved.  As I posted before you - the heating element in my machine uses 6 times the energy of the motor that turns it and there's a pump in there too - but I don't have the energy consumption for that.  So ten minutes saved in heating up the water (i.e. by lowering the wash temp) is worth a lot more than ten minutes saved on the time of the cycle.

Hopefully someone who knows how to work out electricity used v temperature can give a definitive answer.

And if people really need to make savings on their energy bill, a bit of additional effort might well be worth it for them.  I can afford my energy bill, but it makes sense to me to just not be wasteful - and I think a washing machine at over 2kWh is one of the big things.