THOMPSON SUSTAINABLE HOMES CONTINUES TO PROVE THAT REAPING THE BENEFITS OF ELITE ENVIRONMENTAL PERFOMANCE DOES NOT MEAN COMPROMISING YOUR DESIGN VISION
Washing Machines
The lowdown
Laundry is one of the easiest areas to reduce energy costs in. Here's where the waste is:
- Water heating. A whopping 90% of the energy used by washing clothes often goes just to heat the water! So you can save a bundle just by changing the temperature setting. (~$150/year) I wash in cold almost exclusively.
- Top-loading washers. Top-loading washers use ridiculous amounts of water and energy. That's why other countries use front-loading washers instead, and I recommend them enthusiastically. I cover front-loaders in more detail below.
- Drying water-laden clothes. Most washing machines leave far too much water in the clothes, making the dryer run much longer. Front-loaders get more of the water out of your clothes. You can also use a Spin Dryer to extract water from your clothes before drying.
- Unnecessary drying. Dryers are unnecessary in the first place, since you can just hang your clothes up to dry. There's 100% energy savings to be realized here. (See more on dryers & dryer costs.)
Of course you can always run around the house naked, too. Then you'll have less clothes to wash.
Heating the water is most of the energy use
If you wash in hot, then 90% of the energy is going just to heat the water. You can save a bundle by just just lowering the temperature. You could also get a front-loading machine, which uses about 63% less water than a top-loader (and therefore spend less to heat the water.)
Check out how much energy is used depending on the temperature selected:
