Up To Day Twelve...Time's A-Flyin!

I took a look at the blog tonight and all I could say was "Ouch! It's been that long since I updated??"

Well, apparently it has.

I could use the excuse that life has been hectic, or the dog ate the computer. Which would everyone prefer??

In truth, neither of those things happened - but I was as busy as ever.

Suffice to say, little has changed in the current family project, in the few days since I last updated. We continue to live with all appliances unplugged, except when they are in active use. This has already caused a bit of grumbling, especially in the direction of the bathroom - I forgot my husband's electric shaver needed to be charged before use.

Minimal stove usage has been the order of things for most meals, along with the microwave. Really, the microwave sits on the counter mainly as a showpiece now, and we only use it to heat up water for the occasional lunch of Raamen noodles (we really don't eat those very much). We used to use it to tell time, but with it being unplugged nowadays, a glance that direction doesn't reveal much. Most food (at least two out of three of the meat-startch-veggie combo for dinner) is cooked on the grill, where it is flavored by the sweet smell of propane, as well as keep our energy costs down.

Part of the reason that it is so important to us to use the stove minimally for meals at this point in time is because it must remain on so much of the time for our other pursuits, such as canning and blanching veggies to be put up for winter. Already this week I have numerous veggies to do, as well as at least one more batch of jam to put up. For more about our canning adventures and garden exploits, head on over to our other blog, Suburban Quest.

I continue to wash dishes using the energy-and-water-saving method, which is to say that I put two gallons in each side of the sink and go to town on the dishes. Everything is carefully pre-scraped and rinsed using a very minimal amount of water at the outset. I figure, if we're not going to be as good as an EnergyStar rated dishwasher (which uses four gallons of water), then why do it at all? The very best I can hope for is to win out on the power usage: Any dishwasher, EnergyStar or not, would have to remain on for the full cycle of wash, rinse, and possibly dry. Since I only have to have the faucet on for three minutes (five tops when pre-rinsing the dishes, off and on), I'd like to think I'm winning out on that score. Our next energy and water bills will definately tell us the whole story.

Well, now I'm off to make bread, so good night everyone! Sometime this week I'll make sure and look at the energy meter and take a picture to post. Take care!

Day Four: No Air Conditioning!

I am quite pleased and proud to report that yesterday, day four of the current family project, we did not feel the need to turn on the air conditioning at all. The weather and the sun cooperated and left the house actually a bit on the cool side.

On another note, the only appliances to run for any lenght of time yesterday, aside from 20 minutes of stove usage for dinner and a few minutes with the Kitchen Aid mixer in order to make butter (you can check out that particular process and adventure on our other blog, Suburban Quest), were the washer and dryer. It took three loads through both to get all of the clothes and one sleeping bag (thanks to the aforementioned weekend camping trip) to keep the family clean for the next week. Never mind that two hours after I declared laundry day "over", the basket was full again. I'm not sure if we'll have to make a special exception and run the washer again one day this week to catch up.

Again, the stove was only on for 20 minutes, to cook up some chicken that was added to a cold caesar salad for dinner. That, however, will change today (Day 5), as canning is in order, both tomatoes and potatoes and possibly some pumpkins to be put up. Other than some off-and-on light usage (particularly during the evening hours yesterday as business had to be taken care of), and some more computer usage (trying to make an income while using the computer generally means that it has to be on), we've done quite well at conserving energy.

I'm also quite curious to see how much water has been saved by not running it constantly while doing the dishes. I've been very careful to set a maximum requirement of four gallons over the past two days - just as much as an EnergyStar rated dishwasher would use, but still less energy, as running the water for only 3 minutes or so as opposed to the dishwasher for an hour I'm sure saves something, if not much.

It still remains to be seen how this project will progress, though we've been very satisfied so far. We're not hurting from the heat (yet) and we're not really doing anything differently than we have done the last month, with the exception of the television and computer being on at the same time. Everyone has been very careful about unplugging or not using appliances, and we've all been quite enjoying ourselves. I have half a mind at some point in time to trip a circuit breaker and see how we can survive without electricity entirely...though, mind you, if I don't pay the bill soon, that's what will be happening anyways! :)

So onward we go...to canning, cleaning, cooking, and another day in the life of the current family project!

Day Three: Yesterday

Yesterday (Day three) brought a lot less usage on appliances, except when it came time for dinner. We traditionally aren't hot breakfast and lunch people (the thought of cooking breakfast only really sounds good at midnight the previous day), so it really wasn't much of a choice.

Dinner in and of itself was (again) done on the grill, except for a pot of rice that took all of 25 minutes on the stove to cook. It's really nice, actually, not having a bunch of pots and pans to do. Following dinner, I filled both sides of our double sink to wash the dishes and spent far less energy than the dishwasher would have, I'm sure (see article below on using the dishwasher vs. handwashing dishes.)

By using the light of the day, getting things done during waking hours, and planning when things will get done such as washing, drying, etc., things are falling into place around the house. The oven wasn't even on yesterday, sparing me my internal debate about whether or not something is broken with it, being as it takes (or seems to take) longer and longer to heat up.

The air conditioning was forced to run for about 5 hours yesterday; however, it was turned off about 10:00PM, before anyone went to bed, and has remained off since, so I'm not too concerned about energy usage from it.

However, today (Day Four) is washday, so we'll see how many loads of laundry it takes to keep this family in clean clothes for the rest of the week! Also, since the teenager of the house was gone most of the weekend but has now returned, the laptop is once again vying for full domination of the house, especially since youtube seems to be a favorite channel...along with the Zune that is constantly plugged into some system or another and blasting music that I fondly remember enjoying in my youth, despite its heavy-metal-ness and contstant instrumental solos that sound rather...painful.

Thank you everyone, have a good day! More on the currently family project tomorrow.

Dishwashers vs. Handwashers

Growing up, I liked to joke with my mother about how we needed a dishwasher. Her response was always the same...that we had two of them already, one on each end of my elbows. It came as no surprise to anyone that the day I moved into an apartment with a dishwasher I just about fell down to my knees in gratitude and kissed the thing - wisely, not while it was running. However, it seemed that every time I got used to it, it broke. So I washed dishes by hand (again) and looked forward to newer apartments with better appliances.

Now I live in a house, complete with dishwasher...and I'm still washing dishes by hand. Not because this one has broke, even though I'm pretty hard on appliances. No, this time it was by choice...at least sort of. Some weeks ago we came to the realization that for the price of roughly 20 dishwasher cycles, we could buy 96 ounces of liquid dish soap, something far more versatile and on sale. Since we couldn't afford both dish soap and dishwasher soap, the liquid dish soap won out, and I went back to washing dishes by hand.

Recently, with our current family project of energy savings, I have read several studies that compare the amount of water used when washing dishes in a dishwasher versus washing them by hand. Personally, I'm all for either method - whatever floats anyone's boat is their business, as I say. One good blog I found was by a woman named Melinda, entitled One Green Generation. However, it shocked me to learn on her blog that a conventional dishwasher will use about 6 gallons of water per cycle, and an EnergyStar rated dishwasher will use about 4 gallons per cycle. It further shocked me to learn that washing dishes by hand can use up to 27 gallons of water and those surveyed took about 80 minutes of time to hand wash the dishes, according to at least one study cited on her blog.

Okay...what??

Now, I know I'm no great shakes at being efficient, but that seems high even to me. What exactly is causing all this water runoff? Does the faucet get turned on before the first dish and run even while the counters are being wiped down afterwards? Are people filling buckets the size of washtubs and bathing in the water before (or while) doing the dishes? I know dishes are dirty, and probably so are the people after a hard day, but seriously...27 gallons? I can't even picture 27 gallons, let alone think about using it to do the dishes! I'm not even sure 27 gallons would fit in my refrigerator to get a visual!

What is probably worse is that these 27 gallons were being compared to a dishwasher, and, as Melinda states on her blog, probably not giving an accurate reading of water-saving properties. We won't even get into the human time allotment used to hand-wash the dishes. If I took 80 minutes to wash the dishes, I'm sorry, I've either had a dinner party or dirtied every dish in the house - times two!

Okay, to put things in perspective, I did my own experiment. Some will recall that we installed a low-flow aerator on the kitchen sink as part of the current family project, and the aerator limited the water to 1.5 gallons per minute flow. I filled a double sink (both sides) for two minutes on the rinse water and one minute on the wash, or 4.5 gallons...and I'm happy to say that I was able to wash three place settings, three serving bowls, four glasses, two extra plates, two pans and one pot without getting greasy or feeling gross. And believe me, that water was hot. It was run for about 30-45 seconds beforehand to warm up, because I'm sorry, I'm not washing dishes in cold water. Nope, not happening.

So, I may have used more water than an EnergyStar appliance, but I know that I used less energy because it only took me about 20 minutes to wash all the dishes, and I only ran the water for three to four minutes, as opposed to the 30-50 minutes it takes for a dishwasher to complete a full wash/rinse/dry cycle, during which time it is on from start to finish. On a gas-powered hot water heater, I think I saved energy - and water - all at the same time.

Bottom line? I don't have enough time to survey all the appliances in the world for their actual water output, usage, and willingness to clean. All I know is what I saw - that I could fill two sinks, wash all the dishes (in less than 80 minutes, thank you!) and not have to turn on the water again for anything after that, including wiping down the counters and the stove. So, for now, at least for me, handwashing wins. What everyone else does is their own business.

See you at the sink!