Dishwasher v. hand washing
 diswashing-energy-efficient-water
What's better for the climate -- washing my dishes by hand or using a dishwasher?
Hi,
Just wondering if it's more energy efficient to wash dishes by hand or use a dishwasher. Presumably washing by hand avoids the electricity needed to run the dishwasher, but since I generally leave the water on the whole time when washing by hand, is it worse because I'm wasting more water and using more energy to heat up all that water that runs through the sink?
Thanks,
Jeff Comments
Seems to me that the easiest and most efficient way to deal with this problem is to retrain yourself not to leave the water running the whole time you're washing dishes. It doesn't take all that long, I had to do the same thing myself when I realized what I was doing and had it down within a week. And surprise! the habit also carries over to brushing teeth and washing hands.
I realize how lucky we are on land every time I go sailing. Aboard ship the procedure is to run three small sinks, each with about a half a gallon of water in them. The first has soap, the second plain water and the last water with a capful of bleach. And a crew of 13 generally uses that, with maybe one change on the soapy sink. 
Your question is similar to that posed by my wife. In some respects, it's unanswerable because the answer depends on so many variables. Do you wash your dishes after every meal? Do you wash them under running hot water? (I know some who do.) How efficient is the dishwasher? Do you wash everything, including saucepans, in it? How is your hot water heated? And so on.
My answer is emphatically that hand washing is more efficient if you do what I do. I store up 24-hours-worth of washing up and do it (personal preference) after breakfast. All of it. I use one plastic bowl full of hot water (heated, I'm sorry to say, by oil -- but that's another story! But if I'm on my own, I just boil the amount of water I need in a kettle since I don't have the domestic hot water system in operation). I have a rinsing bowl filled with cold water and place the washed items in a draining rack. Hours later, my wife or I put the items away. I don't believe resource use could be less than that. |
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Bry has the answer, but wash up at night if there is any risk of ants, cockroaches or other vermin.
Also, round bowls use less water than square ones.
If extra hygiene is essential, use hot water in the rinse-bowl too, and then cutlery and crockery dry imediatly on a 2-tier dishrack. Afterwards, empty the sudsy water on a tuf part of the garden, and re-use the rinse water put into the wash-up basin for rinsing etc until the next wash-up. (That keeps the rinsing bowl always very clean.)