Wash laundry in cold water
Last comment by user_962 on 3 Jan 2011:| Sorry, but if clothes are at all stinky, cold water does NOT work. Warm instead of hot does seem to work, though, so one could commit to this half... |
Description
Wash (and rinse) laundry in cold water. Today's washing machines and detergents are designed to work well in cold water, so no excuse. Washing clothes in cold water simply eliminates the need for energy to heat the water for the wash cycle, it does not change the amount of electricity consumed by the washer during operation. Look for the wash/rinse water temperature settings on all machines, whether at home or at a Laundromat.Tags
- behavior
- hot water
- individual
- laundry
- repeatable
- residence
- year round
Assumptions We Made
Assume top-loading model which averages 35 gallons of water per load and doing 1 load per day (365 loads of laundry per year (slightly less than as used by DOE for their energy calculations). The typical household washes only 25% of loads in cold water. Used water heater calculation to determine energy requirements. Used Energy Center of Wisconsin water heater calculator spreadsheet to calculate energy savings. Considers both electric and gas water heaters, and factors such as persons in household, presence of washers, temperatures, to determine volume of water consumed and total energy consumed. here, assumed water temperature changed from 140 to 120 for family of 4 with both clothes and dish washers. calculation for ELECTRIC water heater.Impacts
Initial Impacts
Each time you carry out this action, the immediate impacts are:
- Saves 0.15 dollars
- Saves 1.48 lbs of CO2
Ongoing Impacts
Some actions also have additional impact over time. For this action, these are:
- Unknown
Potential Annual Impact
We assume that this action will be carried out weekly (about 52 times a year). In this case, in a year you could save:- 8.00 dollars
- 76.90 lbs of CO2
| Sign up to commit |