Thanks, all for your thoughtful answers to my question about dams as a source of power. Your answers were really articulate and informative. Now I'm curious to know about dish-washing. In England I always washed dishes by hand. Now, in the US, I am curious to know how wasteful this noisy machine actually is!
not much, in fact less than zero. like the guy said, dishwashers use less water than handwashing (normally, not if you wash one dish at a time in the dishwasher). since the main energy use in dishwashing is the hot water, the less you use the less energy you use.
the determination on that would be difficult. It would depend on how the setting... whether washing pots/pans, or glassware, etc.... Obviously the energy would be less if washing by hand and probably a lot of water saved to boot.
You save alot of energy by washing dishes by hand I would say that you should only use your dishwasher if you didn't have enought time to wash your dishes.Also that not only do you save energy but your electric and water bill will go down.
Yes and how a person washes has an effect on the amount of energy used. I'm very effecient at handwashing and I'm pretty sure I use less water and energy than my dishwasher. But many people use much more in the way they wash. Another thing to think about is what products you're using. Most of the diswasher products are very bad for the environment. Either way, you should use biodegradables. BTW: I also use the water normally wasted waiting for it to heat by catching it in pitchers to fill my Brita pitcher.
I think it uses water about 13 to 25 gal./load for older models; 9 to 11 gal./load for high efficiency models. Hand wash with basin about 10 gallons
