Save Energy in Washing 
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Of all the labour-saving devices in the house, the washing machine surely is the greatest.
In my granny’s day, Wash Day was literally that, an entire day devoted to the washing of clothes. Yet now, the most taxing part of laundry is probably sorting lights from darks ... (ok, and remembering to put the detergent in - done that before...)
HOW IT WORKS:
In a washing machine clothes are shaken around in warm soapy water, rinsed and then spun to get some water out. During a typical cycle, energy is used for three main things:
* Pumping water
* Rotating drum & spinning
* Heating water
Of these, without a doubt heating water is the greatest consumer of energy. So, short of stopping washing clothes, what steps can we take to bring down our laundry energy and carbon consumption ?
POSITIVE STEPS:
Full load
Firstly, think load. Like a dishwasher, washing machines operate most efficiently with a full load. The washing machine will use a very similar amount of energy whether it’s got a full load or just a pair of socks.
Even on machines that have a “half load” setting, you can find that the energy use for the cycle is often more than the half you might expect. So if you are in the habit of running the machine to clean say just a couple of tee-shirts, you stand to make some significant savings simply by waiting until you’ve got a full load.
Temperature
Temperature of the wash has a really major impact on how much energy is used. Water takes an amazing amount of energy to raise its temperature. The hotter your wash, the greater that energy.
Compare a 30’C wash to a 60’C one:
Lets say your cold water comes into the machine at 10’C, so it has to be raised by 20 degrees for a 30’C wash. If you chose a 60’C wash it would have to be raised a full 50 degrees. This means that each 30’C wash you do will save two and a half times more energy in heating water vs a 60’C one. These are major savings available with each wash...
Thanks to new detergent technology, most decent detergents now clean well at low temperatures (eg: 30'C), so wash temperature is a substantial saving opportunity available at the mere twist of a dial. Try it today... well, as soon as you’ve got a full load !
Spin
Maybe your washing machine has a great spin in the normal programme that leaves your clothes virtually dry, but the ones I’ve come across don’t. This is where an additional spin can be a very helpful energy efficient way of helping the drying process.
Most clothes are able to be spun (wools and some delicates not usually, but check the label to make sure). Selecting an additional spin after the wash will help in getting your clothes drier more quickly.
What’s more the additional energy consumption can be minimal – even though it sounds like the machine is working itself into a frenzy as it whizzes round, our additional long spin cycle uses just 0.04kWh – about the same energy as boiling a single cup of tea.
During this additional spin, a load of extra water can be seen coming from the outlet, meaning a lot less drying work to do afterwards. Whatever way you dry your clothes, spinning gets more water out making drying quicker and more efficient. This is crucially important if you tumble dry after.
Standby
What is it about standby ? It's not widely publicised, but loads of washing machines are consuming power year round - when they're not being used. Yep, once again, it's good old Captain Standby...
We measured our machine and found not content with one, it actually had two levels of standby… First when the machine has finished its load it sits there with a little red light on, apparently doing nothing, but actually consuming 10 Watts (that’s more than an energy saving bulb).
This had been steadily consuming 24hours a day, 365 days a year, ie: adding 88kWh per year onto our electricity bill for no apparent benefit - crazy!
On finding this we switched it to the “off” position on the dial and the red light went out… BUT unbelievably the power consumption was still there, albeit at 5W now… but still, it’s 44kWh that is completely needless consumption.
So if you’d rather not have your washing machine ratchet up your electricity meter day in day out, the message is simple, pull the plug on Captain Standby! Switch off at the wall. (As ever, it eliminates the chance of standby fires too)
