My dishwasher (one year old, A++) has an eco mode. The manual says this does a full load using 9 litres of water and 0.9 kWh. I was able to measure the power consumption using a kill-a-watt and it came in at about 0.86 kWh, so I think their figures are credible (plus this model was tested at some lab in the EU).
This mode takes 3 hours to run, which is not that big a deal.
It also has a “60 minute eco” mode which actually runs for 90 minutes. It uses slightly more power (which doesn’t matter to me as I have solar) and slightly more water - 9.6 litres according to the manual.
But my inner scrooge says that the appliance works less hard on the shorter cycle, because it’s not pumping and engaging gears for as long. This should translate into longer life.
Is my inner scrooge worth listening to?
I am concerned about water use, but this looks like 3 litres extra per week. That won’t drain the Vaal Dam significantly earlier.
Good question!
My experience is that Eco isn’t eco at all. I think it means going easy on the clothes that you are washing, not economical wrt power usage
I’m thinking really of the poor dishwasher because it runs for 3 hours. We have a newish washing machine which runs for less time, doesn’t much trouble the kill-a-watt (we stick to cold programs), and uses far less water than it’s predecessor.
The old washing machine is a top loader, a big one. It is probably economical if you can fill it, but we can’t. It’s now at the Salvation Army, and they have no trouble filling it.
I think the eco mode on the dishwasher is light on water and electricity, but I do wonder if it’s harder on itself.
I believe in the eco modes on new appliances in terms of impact on the meters.
I have seen that many of the newer dishwashers run longer but use less peak power and are also more quiet. They need the extra time to wash clean.
Most people does not mind the duration as mush as the noise (you can go to bed if you start it after dinner).
For me the 22 year old AEG wash better than the newer eco models and I sleap far away so that the sound does not matter. A small appartment might be another matter.
I have a wife who cannot leave things alone. “What’s done is done… even if it makes me a little grumpy” seems to be the philosophy. So the machine absolutely must be done before bed time to prevent it from being a thing tomorrow morning
I think this is part of the thinking behind ever improving ratings. Our ratings system piggy backs that of the EU. And in the EU they don’t just want you to use less water and less power, but they are keen for you to use power outside of peak demand times.
My friends and family in the EU either run their appliances at midday if they have solar, or in the wee hours when demand is lower and so is the price you pay. For the latter, noise is a real consideration. Many people would run the dishie when the TV is masking the noise, but they don’t want to lie in bed and listen to it at 2 in the morning. So reduced noise is part of getting you to run the appliance in the wee hours.
I don’t, most of the time. And on the most eco of modes my current dishie even opens the door for you to let the steam out - which is required to meet the rating.
It uses less than one kWh of electricity for the entire wash (they claim 0.9, but I measured it at less than that). So you can see the atttraction - in places where they have time of day billing. You load the dishie over the day (my friends in Belgium stick EVERYTHING in there). Before you turn in you set the timer for 2 in the morning. It chugs quitely away. When you wake up all the dishes are done and cooled down so that you can handle them, and you used minimal electricity when the tariff is lowest.
Mine is the same. ECO mode which I believe runs for 3:52 if I remember correctly (wayyyy too lazy to get up and walk 10m to push buttons and confirm )
But yeah, like you said it uses barely any electricity and water, so I like it. Add the fact that there’s solar and a delay option I generally have it start around 11am to be finished before 4pm.
I guess that’s the actual point of the topic and I don’t know. It’s an interesting observation though to which I have no idea. I guess what might be worth ‘calculating’ would be the cost savings in electricity & water vs (potential) increased wear / replacement costs.
The savings in electricity doesn’t bother me too much. The savings in water does. But I’m closing in on retirement, and I’d like to not have to replace this dishie too soon. So if that 3 hour run (it’s 3:08 on mine) results in more grinding of gears than the 1 hour option, then I may incline towards the latter (which only uses about 5% more water).
AIUI, the EU sets the standards we use, and in the EU they just say that to get such and such a grading you must be able to do a full load (they have a standard full load they use in test labs) using less than X liters of water and Y kWh of energy, and how you do that and how long it takes is up to you. Though you do have to declare the run time for each cycle.
Your question reminded me of the Stop/Start function on newer cars during city driving. Saves a lot of fuel and whatnot.
What no one factored in, or mentioned, according to an article or two, or three, was the wear and tear on the starter motor … and the battery not having enough time to recharge properly if in traffic.
Both lead to earlier replacement compared to not using the Stop/Start between robots …
It depends on priorities. I certainly approve of the reduction in fuel burning. I remember being in Wales some years ago, and being flabbergasted at how long the lights took to change there (or certainly where we were based). Here it feels like a long time, but mostly it’s not really that bad if you time it and if knowing the number is enough to reduce your blood pressure. But there one could sit for several minutes. So in that sort of scenario there is a worthwhile saving on emissions.
If they couple that with more efficient batteries and faster alternators then maybe it’s a win all around. Their batteries get a lot colder in winter than ours do.
I don’t have the delay but a sonoff sorts that out via HA.
Free power and water so now issue with the duration. Big Issue: the fact that I am the only one who can actually stack it properly
It’s just a mode that reduces use of both water and electricity. There are figures laid down by the EU, and a test process involving independent laboratories. They run the dishwasher and monitor the consumption.
The manual for my dishwasher stipulates that in eco mode it will do a full load of “normally soiled dishes, even with dried on residue” using 9 liters of water and 0.9 kWh of electricity. When I measured it (kill-a-watt) it came in at about 0.87 kWh for the whole cycle. The cycle takes 188 minutes.
This is an A++ appliance (current SA rating scheme). All new machines sold in SA with that rating should offer a similar mode.
Recently the EU changed their ratings system and this is now a C, I think, as they want A rated machines to be still more economical.
Actchoohally , they did factor it in. Cars with stop-start runs a beefier starter, and a larger battery. Engineers aren’t entirely stupid
Of course, it is still built down to a price, and it will last longer if you don’t use it.
Same in the Netherlands. You can take a nice nap while you wait for a light to change.
The fuel needed to restart is equivalent to 7 seconds of idling. If you’re going to be stationary for more than 7 seconds, you save fuel by turning it off.
What I find particularly funny, is people who feel that they need to creep forward in traffic. They’d sit there, waiting for the light, and then about halfway through the wait, they’d decide to pull closer to the car in front. Of course the moment they take the foot off the brake, stop/start starts the engine to let the car move forward. Now the computer doesn’t shut it off again immediately, because the system actually avoids frequent restarts (also to recharge the battery… again… the engineers are not entirely dumb)… and now the car sits there idling literally for nothing, having spent the restart already and only saved half the fuel. Pfffft.
‘Eco-mode’ or the energy saving setting on a dishwasher helps to lower the wash and rinse temperatures during a cycle, in turn using less energy that would have otherwise been used to heat the water.
Thanks to Oom Google for that. This then means you lose the sterilizing effect of the dishes with Eco mode
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