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.
Showing posts with label hand washing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hand washing. Show all posts
Monday, August 22, 2011
Sunday, August 21, 2011
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!
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!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)