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Discussion for "Wash only full loads of clothes."

Description

When doing laundry, wait until you have enough dirty clothes and linens to do a full load rather than filling the washer partially. Most washers use the same amount of water for a given cycle, regardless of how full the basin is. Even setting the controls to a small load, if an option on the machine, uses a set amount of water that might be too much for a partially full basin. If you are washing clothes in hot water, doing a full rather than partial load saves the energy needed to replenish the hot water used in a wash cycle. Waiting until you have a sufficient volume of laundry to wash also means saving time doing fewer loads.

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From: user_6 on 23 Jul 2009 (see all comments from this user)
I have fabric sensing washer that optimizes the wash cycle based on the fabric mix. In this case, there's no need to wash a full load because the washing machine handles the water level. How do we (those with efficient washing machines) credit ourselves for this specific action?
From: user_2 on 4 Aug 2009 (see all comments from this user)
That's an interesting one. As the amount of water and energy used per load varies, we would need to derive some sort of average based on use over time. Or, we need the manufacturers to give us a way of asking the washing machine how much water/energy it has used and/or saved compared to a full load.
From: user_6 on 5 Aug 2009 (see all comments from this user)
I think letting the user know how much water is used is a nice feature to add to a washer. Finding out the amount of water used shouldn't be hard to implement. The only way to know the savings is to know how much water an inefficient washing machine would have used on the same load. As for how much energy the washer is using, a device like the TED or Kill-A-Watt could be used.
From: user_2 on 3 Sep 2009 (see all comments from this user)
A calibrated flow sensor would do the trick. You could fit one yourself on the inlet pipe.

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